‘The Story of India’s Cheetahs’: How the cheetah went from being hunter to hunted

There was once a charismatic being that stalked the scrublands, deserts and mountains of the Indian subcontinent but skirted around dense forests. Smaller than the tiger but larger than the wolf, it defied easy categorisation. Some considered it half cat, half dog, a link between the feline and canine worlds, while a 13th-century Persian text outlining the “Wonders of Creation” claimed it was one of these, born of the lion and the leopard. Indian falconers classified it as a bird of prey for it leaped so high that it seemed to soar through the sky.

Unlike the leopard that slunk through the dark of the night, it conducts its business in broad daylight. Yet it is often mistaken for the leopard. But once you note the difference between the cheetah and the leopard, you can never confuse the two.

In spite of the old adage about the leopard and its spots, the leopard’s coat is in fact marked by rosettes, whereas it is the cheetah that is covered with perfect spots – and its long history of being trained by humans suggests that it can very well change its “spots”. Taller and lithe in comparison to the leopard, the cheetah is the fastest...

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