The initial record of the Cheetah in Arabia dates from 1950 and this being from the photograph of a skin of an animal shot in Northern Saudi Arabia (1). There have been mentions of tracks and sightings ahead of that date. Back 1950, like today people often mistook Cheetah for Leopard or Tiger. These mix up of names are incredibly common and also quite reputable newspapers is likely to make the mistake.

Cheetah art

You will find just two records for Cheetah in the Southern a part of Arabia. You are from Oman as well as the other from Yemen. The Yemen animal would be a ‘sighting’ of an animal in Wadi Mitan, South Yemen in 1963. The Oman record is from a pet killed by tribesmen in 1977 in the Jibjat area of Dhofar
The IUCN Red List on the internet states that the Cheetah painting is regionally extinct within the Uae and Oman. It states this without showing how the species ever actually took place the Uae and depending on the single Oman record. In the comprehensive 1998 'Current Status with the Cheetah' mention is made of the one Oman specimen but the Uae does not get a mention as an area of former distribution. Holiday in Africa - read more