Hunting With Pet Cheetah

The name Cheetah is derived from the Sanskrit word Chitraka, meaning speckled. Cheetah is of the order carnivora and belongs to the family felidae. It is the world’s fastest land animal, and can attain the speed of 70mph, which is why it is often referred to as ‘the greyhound’ of cats.

Cheetah is less dangerous to humans than the other carnivores, there is no record of a healthy cheetah ever attacking a human. They probably could kill human if they wanted to, but they are built for speed, not strength, and avoid conflict whenever possible, because an injury could mean being unable to hunt, and thus, starvation.

From ancient times the cheetah was captured for royalty, kept as a pet, and taken in royal processions. They were fairly easy to domesticate just as dogs were domesticated, and then used to hunt alongside man, but that was only limited to royal owners who had the resources to trap, train, and maintain these animals. (Hunting With Pet Cheetah Shown in the Below Video)

Some of the ancient texts refer to different varieties of the cheetah even within India like a Mughal text that states: "The Cheetahs found in Multan and the forest of Lakhi jungle is short in height, intrepid and swift, those found in Gujarat are tall in height, while they are of medium height in the Deccan."

This painting by Sarwan shows Akbar hunting spotted deer and blackbuck with the help of cheetahs.