Catfolk Species Accounts: Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)- North Africa and Southwest Asia

Saharan cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) are generally smaller and paler in color than other cheetahs.

Habitat and Distribution
Cheetahs were once widely distributed across the region, absent only from extensive sand plains and massifs, and from areas of dense tree and shrubby vegetation (Heptner and Sludskii 1972). At present, only two main population concentrations can be confirmed: in the south-western Sahara and in Iran (Figure 2). In the south-western Sahara, mountain ranges in Algeria, Chad, Mali and Niger form the cheetah’s stronghold, although they can range far out onto sandy plains where there is sufficient prey. Cheetahs have been observed at elevations up to 2,000 m in the rocky mountains (Kowalski and Rzebik-Kowalska 1991, Dragesco-Joffé 1993, K. de Smet in litt. 1993). In Iran, there are reliable recent records of cheetahs from the provinces of Khorasan (north-eastern part of the country), Markazi (central), and Fars (south-west) (Karami 1992).
It is possible that cheetahs occur sporadically in other parts of the Saharan and South-West Asian regions (such as Egypt’s Qattara Depression, where tracks possibly made by a cheetah were recently found [Amman 1993]), but most records date back at least 20 years (see Figure 2 caption). In South-West Asia, the locations of the greatly reduced gazelle populations are fairly well-known (East 1992b), and it is unlikely that cheetahs would be over-looked. In North Africa, the situation is more optimistic: although no longer common, the dorcas gazelle (which cheetahs in Algeria have been observed to prey upon: Dragesco-Joffé 1993, K. de Smet in litt. 1993) still occurs widely in certain parts of Egypt, locally in Libya, and in the southern deserts of Tunisia (East 1992a).
In Iran, cheetahs are found mainly in the central shrub steppe, a broad zone of bush and grassland where most of Iran’s cities are located. It snows in the winter. The Saharan mountains are hyper-arid, but still receive slightly higher rainfall than the surrounding desert. They are thus better vegetated and support small permanent waterholes and antelope populations (Swift 1975, Le Berre 1991).