Hunting Cheetah Training Manual

Hunting Cheetah's of Baroda in 1895

Quite some time back, we were discussing hunting cheetahs on the blog, and a question was raised about the rope around the hips/loins, that was seen in the clip. I found this interesting insight loosely translated from an old Mugal hunting cheetah manual:

The male cheetahs generally were caught in the age group between 12 to 18 months, the young cubs and females were rarely caught. Capturing an active and a healthy male cheetah use to be a challenge for the trainer and his assistants. Cheetahs are quite dog like animals and tend to play and mark the territory range at a particular tree. The tree was located and a snare use to be set making a boar sinew noose around the tree or nearer to it , once snared and caught the animal is blind folded and leased by the soft rope by neck and around the loins and carried on a rope netted cot back to the village where the trainer & his family resided.

The training schedule incepts firstly by tying down the animal by thick soft rope by neck, loins and both rear legs on the wooden cot for first 3 days and a thick hood made of soft leather was put on its head blinding him completely. The animal is starved and was not allowed to sleep by constant taunting & talking by female members with the captured animal of the trainers family as women folks voices soothens the tormented & starved cheetah and eventually the poor sleepless animal being in a piteous condition is abjectly tamed to submission.

The hoods is not removed for all these 3 days, 4th day the cheetah is fed with few ounces of meat but not belly full and he is tied to the cot facing the open area around the keepers house , and the trainer makes rushes at him with a wet cloth again & again to instigate a charge in retaliation every day, the feed quantity is increased day by day twice for another 20 days and is taken for walks once every day during the training time, through the village bazaars and the animal is introduced to humans and the domesticated animals.

After 20 days the animal was made to sleep in the trainers room on the same cot to develop a strong bond and trust which lasted for a life time.

There was not much for the cheetah to be trained in the field, the instincts take over at the sight of the black buck when the hood was removed and it was released from the neck leash on from the cot with the loin rope on the animal which had a psychological effect on the cheetah may be of the submission towards his trainer and the keeper.