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The Private Secretary to H.H. the Ruler, Korea State, E.S.A., writes us: --
"...All these three cheetahs were shot by the Durbar in our State (Korea, E.S.A.). He was driving at night and they were all seen sitting close to each other. They were all males and the measurements were as follows:
1. 6 ft. 5 ins. between pegs; 2. 6 ft. 4 1/2 ins. between pegs; 3. 6 ft. 4 ins. between pegs.
The first bullet killed one and the second struck the remaining two. The second bullet after having gone through one struck the other, which was behind it, and killed it also. It is not known whether they were born in the State or had migrated from somewhere else. They were all of the same size, as you would see from the measurements and it is believed they were all from the same litter. There is no trace of their parents. They were in perfect condition. A photograph of these cheetahs will be sent to you shortly and you can use the photographs as well with the account.
It would be very kind of you to have a record of this shoot published in the Bombay Natural History Journal and the Field.
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The Journal editors added a lengthy note to the article:
The Cheetah is a timid creature and never known to attack man unprovoked. It is harmless to domestic
animals; at any rate its numbers within recent years have been far too small for any charge of destructiveness to be justified.
According to Dunbar Brander (Wild animals in Central India, p. 273, 1927) the Cheetah had almost
completely disappeared from the Central Provinces. He knew of only three animals having been procured in the 20 years previous to 1927. but rumours of their existence in parts of Berar, the Seoni Plateau and Saugar
were still current in his day and he thought it was possible that one or two animals may have persisted. Writing
12 years later, Pocock (Fauna of British India - Mammals, 2d edn., vol. i, p. 328 -- 1939) says, 'It formerly had a wide distribution in Western and Central India south of the Ganges and extended through the Deccan at
least as far south as Coimbatore (R.C. Morris) its range agreeing tolerably closely with that of the Blackbuck. But it is now to all intents and purposes a thing of the past so far as the fauna of India is concerned...'
The editors were so nauseated by the account of this slaughter that their first impulse was to consign it to the
waste-paper basket. Its publication here is intended in the nature of an impeachment rather than any desire on
their part to condone or extol the deed. That anybody with the slightest claim to sportsmanship -- and the general run of Indian princes justly prided themselves on that -- should be so grossly ignorant of the present
status of the Cheetah in India, or knowingly so wanton as to destroy such a rare and harmless animal when he has the phenomenal good fortune to run into not one but three together -- probably the last remnants of a dying
race -- is too depressing to contemplate. Further comment is needless.
What adds to the heinousness of the episode is that the slaughter was done while motoring through the forest
at night, presumably with the aid of powerful headlights or a spotlight. This, it will be recognized, is not only
against all ethics of sport but it is a statutory offence deserving of drastic action by those whose business it should be to enforce the law.
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