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All About Cheetahs
Extinction is forever and
survival is up to you and me---every last one of us! Cheetahs & HumansThe cheetah's long association with humans dates back to the Sumerians, about 3,000 BC, where a leashed cheetah, with a hood on its head, is depicted on an official seal. In early Lower Egypt, it was known as the MAFDET cat-goddess and was revered as a symbol of royalty. Tame cheetahs were kept as close companions to pharaohs, as a symbolic protection to the throne. Many statues and paintings of cheetahs have been found in royal tombs, and it was believed that the cheetah would quickly carry away the pharaoh's spirit to the after life. By the 18th and 19th dynasties, paintings indicated that the cheetah rivaled dogs in popularity as hunting companions. The best records of cheetahs having been kept by royalty, from Europe to China, are from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. Hunting with cheetahs was not to obtain food, which royalty did not need, but for the challenge of sport. This sport is known as coursing. Adult wild cheetahs were caught, as they already had well developed hunting skills and were tamed and trained within a few weeks. The cheetahs were equipped with a hood, so they could not see the game they were to hunt, and were taken near the prey either on a leash, a cart, or the back of a horse, sitting on a pillow behind the rider. The hood was then removed and the cheetah dashed after the prey, catching it, after which the trainer would reward it with a piece of meat, and then take the cheetah back to the stable where it was kept. Many emperors kept hundreds of cheetahs, at any given time, in their stables. With this great number of cheetahs in captivity, it was recorded only once, by Emperor Jahangir, the son Akbar the Great, an Indian Mogul in the 16th century, that a litter of cubs was born. During his 49-year reign, Akbar the Great had over 9,000 cheetahs, in total, which were called Khasa or the "Imperial Cheetahs," and he kept detailed records on them. All of the cheetahs kept as "hunting leopards" were taken from the wild. Because of this continuous drain on the world populations, the numbers of cheetahs declined throughout Asia. In the early 1900's, India and Iran began to import cheetahs from Africa for hunting purposes.
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