Asiatic Cheetah Status Surveys The Asiatic cheetah is a critically endangered subspecies once found throughout Southwest Asia and into India, and now restricted to a few locations in Iran and perhaps Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Iran, biologists have estimated that perhaps as few as 50 cheetah remain.  The Cat Specialist Group is developing a research and conservation program in cooperation with Iran's Department of Environment. The Iranian Cheetah Society's website features current news about the efforts to save this rarest of the big cats. In January 2001, Ali Reza Jourabchian of Iran’s Dept. of Environment captured the first images of the Asiatic cheetah in the wild on film since the early 1970s.  This family was seen near Tabas, in Khorasan province. Reports of cheetahs still existing in the Balochistan region of Pakistan have not been borne out by a recent CAT-sponsored survey of the southern part of the province.  Gazelles have become very rare due to overhunting, and no cheetahs have been seen by locals for 15-20 years.       Analysis of Asiatic cheetah genetics may shed light on the evolutionary history of the cheetah, which has resulted in its unusual genetic uniformity.  Project reports and background information * Syed Tasvir Husain. 2001 Survey for the Asiatic cheetah in Balochistan province, Pakistan. Final report to CAT and the Barbara Delano Foundation. * Genetics and conservation of the Saharan cheetah. Project proposal by Anne-Marie Drieux-Dumont of the Fonds de Conservation du Guépard, funded in 2002. * Cat Action Plan species account for Cheetah in North Africa and Southwest Asia.  * Extinction record: Cat Action Plan map of the past and present range of the Asiatic cheetah. * The environmental limitations and future of the Asiatic cheetah in Iran. 1997.  Hormoz Assadi, CSG Asiatic Cheetah Project report.  * Read about how cheetahs were trained to hunt for the nobility in ancient India in historian Divyabhanusinh's book, The End of a Trail: The Cheetah in India. * As late as the World War II period, the tradition was carried on by Indian royal families, as described in this excerpt from Shri RS Dharmakumarsinhji's memoirs. * The last record for the cheetah in India dates to 1948, when a raj shot three from his motorcar at night.  Article from the Bombay Journal of Natural History. Thanks to our sponsors the Barbara Delano Foundation and Siegfried and Roy. Young cheetah crouching in the snow.   Iran is the only place within cheetah range where it snows in winter.  (© Eskander Firouz, Cat Action Plan) "A Cheetah Ready for the Hunt" For centuries, Southwest Asian royalty trained cheetahs to hunt.   The cats (like falcons) were fitted with leather hoods en route to hunting to minimize distraction.   The cloak was for warmth. (Watercolor painting made for Marquis Wellesley, circa 1800.   Oriental and India Collection, British Library, London. Reproduced from The End of a Trail: The Cheetah in India).   CAT Home CAT Sitemap