There are three varieties of this animal. One, the maneless Cheetah, is confined to Africa; another, the maned Cheetah, is found all over South-west Asia, and is distinguished from the first-named variety by its longer hair, and by the presence of a distinct though short mane, which, however, is more like the cheek-tufts (we must not call them whiskers, though they exactly resemble them, as that name is appropriated to the long vibrissæ) of the Tiger or Lynx than the mane of the Lion. The third variety is the woolly Cheetah, which differs so much from the other two, as to be usually separated as a distinct species (Felis lanea). Its hair is woolly, and the spots and face-mark light brown instead of black. The hind legs are unusually short. It is a native of South Africa.
SKULL OF CHEETAH.
Mr. Jerdon says, that “this animal was the original Panther and Leopardus of the ancients, who considered (with the Arabs of the present day in North Africa) that it was a breed between the Lion and the Pard.” Possibly it was this animal to which Jeremiah alluded, when he said, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the Leopard his spots?” For, although rare, it is still found in Palestine. Canon Tristram says, “A few still haunt the neighbourhood of Tabor and the hills of Galilee. In Gilead it is more common, and a sheikh there presented me with three skins of the Cheetah, shot by his people.”
It frequents open plains, and hunts by day, in correspondence with which habits it has a circular and not an elliptical pupil to the eye.
CHEETAH.
The Cheetah is a half-domesticated animal; we say half-domesticated, because, although it is used regularly in hunting, yet it is never properly tamed, and always has to be, as it were, gulled into doing its work. The following account of the manner in which it is used in Indian sport is given by Mr. Jerdon[60]:—
“‘On a hunting party,’ says Buchanan Hamilton, ‘the Cheetah is carried on a cart, hooded, and when the game is raised the hood is taken off. The Cheetah then leaps down, sometimes on the opposite side to its prey, and pursues the Antelope. If the latter is near the cart, the Cheetah springs forward with a surpassing velocity, perhaps exceeding that which any other quadruped possesses. This great velocity is not unlike the sudden spring by which the Tiger seizes its prey, but it is often continued for three or four hundred yards. If within this distance the Cheetah does not seize its prey, he stops, but apparently more from anger or disappointment than from fatigue, for his attitude is fierce, and he has been known immediately afterwards to pursue with equal rapidity another Antelope that happened to be passing. If the game is at too great a distance when the Cheetah’s eyes are uncovered, he generally gallops after it, until it approaches so near that he can seize it by a rapid spring. This gallop is as quick as the course of well-mounted horsemen. Sometimes, but rarely, the Cheetah endeavours to approach the game by stealth, and goes round a hill or rock until he can come upon it by surprise. This account of the manner of hunting I collected from the conversation of Sir Arthur Wellesley, who, while commanding officer at Seringapatam, kept five Cheetahs that formerly belonged to Tippoo Sultan.’ Mr. Vigne writes thus:—‘The hunting with Cheetahs has often been described, but it requires strong epithets to give an idea of the creature’s speed. When slipped from the cart, he first walks towards the Antelope with his tail straightened, and slightly raised, the hackle on his shoulder erect, his head depressed, and his eyes intently fixed upon the poor animal, who does not yet perceive him. As the Antelope moves, he does the same, first trotting, then cantering after him; and when the prey starts off, the Cheetah makes a rush, to which (at least I thought so) the speed of a racehorse was, for the moment, much inferior. The Cheetahs that bound or spring upon their prey are not much esteemed, as they are too cunning. The good ones fairly run it down. When we consider that no English Greyhound ever yet, I believe, fairly ran into a doe Antelope, which is faster than the buck, some idea may be formed of the strides and velocity of an animal who usually closes with her immediately, but fortunately cannot draw a second breath, and, consequently, unless he strike the Antelope down at once, is obliged instantly to stop and give up the chase. He then walks about for three or four minutes in a towering passion, after which he again submits to be helped on the cart. He always singles out the biggest buck from the herd, and holds him by the throat until he is disabled, keeping one paw over the horns to prevent injury to himself. The doe he seizes in the same manner, but is careless of the position in which he may hold her.’ The natives assert that (in the wild state) if the ground is not very favourable for his approaching them without being seen, he makes a circuit to the place where he thinks they will pass over, and if there is not grass enough to cover him, he scrapes up the earth all round, and lies flat until they approach so near that by a few bounds he can seize on his prey. Mr. W. Elliott says, ‘They are taught always to single out the buck, which is generally the last in the herd. The meer-shikars are unwilling to slip till they get the herd to run across them, when they drive on the cart and unhood the Cheetah.’
“I have only to add to this, on my own testimony, that I have often seen it, when unhooded, at some distance from the Antelope, crouch along the ground and choose any inequality of surface to enable it to get within proper distance of the Antelope. As to Vigne’s idea of its rush being made during one breath, I consider it a native one, and unfounded, and I may say the same of its holding one paw over the horns of the buck. The Cheetah, after felling the Antelope, seizes it by the throat, and when the keeper comes up he cuts its throat and collects some of the blood in the wooden ladle from which it is always fed. This is offered to the Cheetah, who drops his hold, and laps it up eagerly, during which the hood is cleverly slipped on again. My tame Cheetah, when hungry or left alone (for it appeared unhappy when away from the Dogs with no one near it), had a plaintive cry, which Blyth appropriately calls a ‘bleat-like mew.’ Shikaries always assert that if taken as cubs they are useless for training, till they have been taught by their parents how to pull down their prey. This opinion is corroborated, in part at least, by my experiences with the tame one mentioned above.”