Ancient Peoples Tamed Cheetahs and Used Them to Hunt

Majestic, intelligent and—most important of all—lethally fast, cheetahs were beloved hunting companions throughout Africa, the Middle East and Asia for millennia. In fact, cheetahs were so cherished amongst the nobility throughout these regions that they became what Indian historian Divyabhanusinh describes as the “ultimate royal pet.”

Ancient Egyptians revered cheetahs, who they believed could protect Egyptian royalty in the afterlife. They appear among the illustrations on King Tut’s tomb, and many other ancient murals portray the big cats in jeweled collars and leashes as both pets and hunting companions.

Oral histories and ancient works of art indicate that cheetahs were tamed as hunting companions in ancient Persia, beginning in about the fifth century. A section of the ancient epic Shahnameh (The Persian Book of Kings)—compiled around the 10th century and drawing on far older oral histories—describes how royals would seek out lynx and cheetahs to confine and train as hunters. 

The Shahnameh notes one of the first recorded mentions of a trained captive cheetah was by King Bharām V Gūr in the fifth century, believed to be the first Persian royal to have tamed cheetahs.

Other passages in the Shahnameh chronicle an elaborate hunting party hosted by the Sasanian king Khusraw Parviz, filled with hundreds of elaborately armed horsemen, falconers, cheetahs and cheetah-keepers (who were known as yūzdārs in Persian). The yūzdārs had a special role in these royal courts; they were valued for their skill in training prized cheetahs to ride atop the horse behind the rider (called pillion-style) with the intent to hunt quick-footed prey like antelope, deer, hare and gazelle.

These elaborate and extravagant royal hunts were a public way for kings to showcase their wealth and display their hunting skills to full effect. In addition to teams of cheetahs riding pillion, these hunting parades also included falconers, musicians (which the Shahnameh describes as playing “cymbals, chimes and trumpets") and extravagantly outfitted horsemen.

From Persia, the trend of domesticated cheetahs continued to take hold eastward in royal courts. Marco Polo noted that Kublai Khan kept over a thousand cheetahs on the grounds of his summer palace in the 13th century in what is now China. Although the number of cheetahs may have been exaggerated, like many of Marco Polo’s accounts, historians view the reference as confirmation of their presence in the royal court.

Nowhere were cheetahs more integral to royal life than in India, where they were treated as vaunted companions for the ages. The word cheetah itself can be traced back to the Hindi and Urdu word chita, which itself derives from the Sanskrit citraka, meaning "spotted."

Indian royals utilized cheetahs and bloodhounds to great effect, especially during hunting games. According to historian Shaha Parpia, it was common throughout the Mughal Empire for cheetah-keepers (known as shikaris) to carefully observe and research cheetah speed, anatomy and behavioral patterns—as well as their nutritional needs—in order to raise the most effective hunters. The cheetah was particularly valued for its ability to conceal itself while lying in wait and its talent for kicking up dust while running, forming a distraction.

The official court historian Abū’l Fazl, who served under the emperor Akbar (and ruled between 1556–1605), often noted Akbar’s fondness for cheetahs, especially his favorite cat Chitr Najan. Chitr Najan once famously leapt "to a height of a spear and a half" while in pursuit of a blackbuck, an antelope species native to South Asia.

In his writings, Abū’l Fazl also detailed how Akbar would name each of his cheetahs and how the animals would be carried to hunts in a palanquin—a special pole-borne sedan chair—accompanied by drummers.

Animal behaviorists and historians note that one reason royals took to domesticated cheetahs over other wild cats was because of their friendly personalities and daytime hunting habits. Despite their relatively docile nature, trapping a cheetah was a complicated process. Both emperors Akbar and Jahāngīr—and the trainers they employed—noted that one of the trickiest things about keeping cheetahs was the animals' refusal to breed in captivity.

“It is an established fact that cheetahs in unaccustomed places do not pair off with a female," Jahāngīr wrote in his memoirs. 

Taming cheetahs also required near-perfect timing on the part of the shikaris, the huntsman who trained them. In 1901, a British natural historian noted that it was widely established amongst the shikari that cheetahs could not be captured as cubs if they were intended to be domesticated. “They are useless at training till they have been taught by their parents to pull down their prey,” he wrote.

The difficulty of breeding cheetahs in captivity combined with the need to continually replace them, created a constant demand for newly captured animals—placing increasing strain on their wild populations.

Habitat loss—followed by a colonial-era shift that recast cheetahs from companions to targets—led to decimation of the native cheetah population in South Asia, Africa and beyond. Cheetahs were declared extinct in India in 1952 and are vulnerable in other parts of the world.

The Indian government has worked to reintroduce cheetahs to the region with mixed results. In February 2026, the project reached a happy milestone—a pregnant cheetah was able to give birth to three cubs in India’s Kuno National Park.