Arabs and the cheetah

Till the first half of the 20th century, wild cheetahs did live in many areas of the Middle East. They are called fahd in Arabic, which gives also a quite commonly used name for humans (and a less common, feminine form - Fahdah). The tradition of using them for hunting is very ancient. Most probably, Arabs started to hunt with cheetah in the beginnings of the Islamic era. Some sources affirm they learned this hunting technique from Persians. Some say the first Arab who used to hunt with the cheetah was Kulaib ibn Rabi’a, a hero of Al-Basoos war.
One of the technical problems while hunting with cheetah is related to the fact this animal can run very fast, but only over very short distances, not exceeding 500 m. How to bring it close enough to its pray? For example in India, people use a kind of small cars moved by oxen to bring the cheetah to the field, but probably this can work only in a relatively covered terrains, with trees and bushes. Desert animals will never let you come close enough with your oxen driven car and the cheetah on it to start hunting. This is why Arabs started to teach cheetah horse riding. Or rather by the contrary, they taught the Arabian horses, famous for their loyalty, to accept this big and dangerous looking animal jump on their back… which, I suppose, must have been a tough lesson for a horse indeed. The first one who is believed to have hunted like this is the Umayyadi caliph Yazid ibn Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan (Yazid I, ruling between 680 and 683 CE).
The fahd hunting is often mentioned in Arabic literature, specially the one belonging to the adab genre. For example, Usamah ibn Munqidh, Muslim warrior and courtier living in the times of the Crusades (1095-1188), writes about it in his autobiography, Kitab al-I’tibar (“Book of Learning by Example”). Among different topics in this book, hunting, as well as falconry, is an important subject. Usamah relates many adventures with felids, such as lions, and also comments on a fahd belonging to his father. The animal seemed to suffer from a strange disease (he compares it to human epilepsy), but became a great hunter later on. Also he gives many details distinguishing the cheetah from other species, such as panthers, which are far less useful for the hunter because they cannot be tamed as easily as the cheetah does; they remain aggressive and therefore dangerous for humans.

Why do people hunt with cheetah rather than other felids?

Cheetah is in many ways a very special cat. Contrary to other felids, it cannot climb trees. In its hunting technique it relies on its exceptional speed. The cheetah stalks as near its prey as possible and catches it after a short distance pursuit (not exceeding 500 m), thanks to its ability to run as fast as 110 km/h, while its typical prey, the gazelle, doesn’t exceed 80 km/h.
This high performance predator is on the other hand quite a fragile animal. This is the reason why it tries to avoid danger and unnecessary risks. The cheetah never attacks any animal able to defend itself. It relies exclusively on the effects of sudden and intensive effort implied by fast running, which provoke a shock in its victim’s organism. This is the reason why, most probably, the cheetah will be instinctively unwilling to attack any living creature which doesn’t run away fast enough from it, including the human. The cheetah also avoids any confrontation with potentially stronger rivals, connected to the privilege of eating the animal it caught. In natural conditions, the cheetah is often dispossessed of its prey by stronger opportunists, such as packs of hyenas.
This particular hunting strategy and behaviour is the reason why the cheetah can be tamed much easier, compared with other species of felids, such as the leopard and the panther, which look quite similar, but are very different in terms of behaviour and prospects of a good relationship with humans. Even if the other felids were occasionally used for hunting in the past centuries, it often led to accidents in which the human hunter could become the prey of his feline attorney. On the contrary, the cheetah can be, with relative safety, kept by its human owner as an animal companion or even as a pet. This is the reason why the cheetah, accompanying a leader or a high status person in many circumstances not related directly to the hunting, could be used as a powerful social symbol in different cultures.

Hunting with cheetah in India

Hunting with cheetah used to be a favorite activity in rajah courts in colonial India.