Asiatic cheetah

The Asiatic cheetah is a critically endangered subspecies of cheetah. Today it survives only in Iran, in protected areas on the central plateau. Long ago it roamed from the Arabian Peninsula and the Near East to the Caspian region and northern South Asia, but it vanished from those places during the 20th century.

It diverged from the African cheetahs between 32,000 and 67,000 years ago. In December 2017, fewer than 50 were thought to remain, in three groups scattered over 140,000 square kilometres of Iran's central plateau. Like all cheetahs it belongs to the fastest land animal species in the world.

How many are left?

In the 1970s about 200 Asiatic cheetahs lived in 11 protected areas of Iran. By the end of the 1990s only 50 to 100 were thought to remain. Between 2001 and 2012 camera traps across 18 reserves identified 82 individuals, but 42 died during those years through poaching, road accidents and natural causes. Because the survivors live in a few scattered groups, each loss matters.

A cheetah of the desert

The Asiatic cheetah has buff to light fawn fur with small black spots, and black stripes on the tail tip. Its coat and mane are shorter than those of African cheetahs. An adult measures about 112 to 135 cm from head to body, with a tail of 66 to 84 cm, and weighs 34 to 54 kg. It lives in open desert around Dasht-e Kavir in eastern Iran, and most animals are found in five protected areas, including Kavir National Park and Bafq Protected Area.

How was it named?

The first scientific name, Felis venatica, was proposed by Edward Griffith in 1821 from a sketch of a cheetah without a mane in India. In 1913 Max Hilzheimer named a Central Asian population Acinonyx raddei, from a specimen collected in Merv, Turkmenistan. A five-year genetic study found that Iran's cheetahs are the last representatives of the Asiatic subspecies.

On the globe

The model shows a slim, pale cheetah with black tear lines, as in the card. Look for the long legs.