| Cheeta | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of "Cheeta" (Jiggs IV), long alleged to be the principal animal performer of the Cheeta role | |
| First appearance | Tarzan the Ape Man |
| Portrayed by | Jiggs and other animals |
| In-universe information | |
| Alias | Cheetah, Cheta, Chita |
| Species | Chimpanzee |
| Gender | Male |
Cheeta (sometimes billed as Cheetah, Cheta, and Chita) is a chimpanzee character that appeared in numerous Hollywood Tarzan films of the 1930s–1960s, as well as the 1966–1968 television series, as the ape sidekick of the title character, Tarzan. Cheeta has usually been characterized as male, but sometimes as female, and has been portrayed by chimpanzees of both sexes.
While the character of Cheeta is inextricably associated in the public mind with Tarzan, no chimpanzees appear in the original Tarzan novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs that inspired the films. The closest analog to Cheeta in the Burroughs novels is Tarzan's monkey companion Nkima, who appears in several of the later books in the series.