Following on the earlier tales of Musulman and Kafir lions on Bakhtiari land, I want to share an amazing short film.
Cheetah were traditionally used in the Safavid era for hunting, as you can see in this (apologies!) very poor quality image of a cheetah being carried on the back of a hunter’s horse (from a painting in the Reza Abbasi Museum).
The Mughals also hunted with cheetah (click here to see Akbar hunting, with one of his trained cheetah using exactly the same lethal move as is shown in the film – look top left); and an Indian training manual from around 1780 still exists (if you need help with training your cheetah to hunt, download this here). The manual also includes handy hints in case your cheetah is “indisposed” – you are especially recommended to check its ears; and the facial expression indicative of a “body-ache” is helpfully illustrated.
The animals are now sadly extinct in almost all of their former range. However, a few Asiatic cheetah (a different species from the African animals) do still live in Iran.
When I visited the Kavir National Park in 2008, the rangers excitedly told me that they had seen footprints suggesting that there were two cubs that season! Click here to see some great photos from the Iranian captive breeding programme.
The reason, however, that this week’s post is so short is to give you time to watch a short clip from a 1939 film ‘Life with an Indian Prince’ that actually shows hunting going on – albeit using bullock carts rather than horses to transport the (super-fast, but not much stamina) cheetah.
Prepare to be astounded!
(Even the most super-squeamish of you can watch the first three minutes.)
I was really facinated by this film as the only other incident that I have seen of Cheetah being used by man to hunt was in Mogul miniatures. Coincidentally last week, in the dentist, I was reading a copy of the Field magazine and there in an article, about keeping unusual animals, was a picture of a man with a young cheetah on a rabbit hunt. It seems he is trying to get his young Cheetah to learn the skills of hunting for her prey so that she could be released into the wild and be capable of not only feeding herself but any cubs that she may have. Encouraging.
Thank you so much Caroline for bringing this film to my notice.
Sarah
That is fascinating, Sarah! Of course I want to follow it up (specially as I found more on cheetahs recently, and was thinking of doing another posting). Only problem is, I cant find anything in the Field magazine electronically. You wouldnt by any chance be able to tell me more eg which issue?
Many thanks and yours hopefully
Caroline
Hello just thought i would tell you something.. This is twice now i’ve landed on your blog in the last 2 weeks searching for totally unrelated things. Spooky or what?
Thanks for letting me know – hopefully it means that its well indexed! And hope you’re enjoying landing here – and that its useful!
Caroline
Awesome post.
Cool blog cheers for writing this.
hey, nice blog…really like it and added to bookmarks. keep up with good work
Thanks, John!
Please do keep reading . . and commenting too
Best wishes
Caroline
A most interesting blog. And am vicariously enjoying your marvellous adventures. I landed on ur page because I was reading up on Akbar’s leopards and have now gotten distracted by lots of other stuff on ur blog 🙂 Plan to return for more leisurely reading of earlier posts.
God bless you