Asia covers vast swathes of the globe, from Saudi Arabia to Singapore to Siberia, and is home to a variety of fast-running species, including the blackbuck, the wild ass and the wolf. But there’s a big animal that outpaces every one of them.
The Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus) is a subspecies that diverged from its African relatives between 32,000 and 67,000 years ago.
It is smaller than the African cheetah but has a thicker coat with smaller, denser spots, shorter legs and a more powerful neck. Like a finely tuned racing car, this cheetah is anatomically adapted for high-octane chases, relying on speed and vision to hunt prey such as gazelles, antelopes and wild deer.
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An adult Asiatic cheetah grows to around 1.3m in length and can reach sprinting speeds of up to 112kmph – its nearest Asiatic rival, the blackbuck, tops out at 80kmph.
The range of this beautiful big cat once extended across the entire Arabian Peninsula, through the Middle East and into India. Ancient Persia’s kings used the agile felids to chase down gazelles. But the species has fallen victim to excessive hunting and degradation of habitat, leading to a tragic decline in population, and making them one of the most critically endangered big cats in the world.
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The surviving population lives on in Iran, in protected areas in the hilly, rugged terrain of the country’s arid central plateau. Asiatic cheetahs are an important part of Iran’s natural and cultural heritage, and an apex predator in their range, yet in recent years threats to their survival have come from poaching, accidental road deaths and the decimating of prey species by hunting.
Numbers were down to a dozen or so, from more than 200 in the 1970s. Then, earlier this year, sightings of 21 new adults and six cubs left conservationists more hopeful for the future of the species.
But with fewer than 50 remaining in the wild, and their Iranian habitat now in the crossfire of a geopolitical conflict, with conservation efforts halted or severely jeopardised, this terrestrial species is literally teetering on the brink of extinction. For this isolated population of Asiatic cheetahs, and the people who care about them, the challenge is immense.
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Top image: Getty Images
