Cheetah paintings
The initial record of your Cheetah in Arabia dates from 1950 and this being in the photograph of the skin of your animal shot in Northern Saudi Arabia (1). There was mentions of tracks and sightings ahead of that date. In 1950, like today people often mistook Cheetah for Leopard or Tiger. These combine of names are incredibly common as well as quite reputable newspapers is likely to make the error.
There are just two records for Cheetah in the Southern part of Arabia. One is from Oman and the other from Yemen. The Yemen animal was a ‘sighting’ of your animal in Wadi Mitan, South Yemen in 1963. The Oman record is from a pet killed by tribesmen in 1977 inside the Jibjat part of Dhofar
Even the IUCN Red List on the web states that the Cheetah painting is regionally extinct in the Uae and Oman. It states this without showing how the species ever actually happened in the United Arab Emirates and based on the single Oman record. In the comprehensive 1998 ‘Current Status from the Cheetah’ mention is made of the single Oman specimen however the Uae does not get a mention as an area of former distribution. Holiday in Africa – read more