Mummified cave cheetahs inform rewilding actions in Saudi Arabia

Ahmed Al Boug; Zaffar R. Mir; Sharif Jbour; Vincent van der Merwe; Abdullah Al Salem; Abdulmani H. Al-Qahtani; Saleh Al A’amri; Zuhair Amr; Francesco Maria Angelici; Francesco Maria Galassi; Elena Varotto; Mohammed F. Albeshr; Talal Al Shamari; Khalaf Al Shamari; Mohammed Al Mutairi; Pamela A. Burger; Stefan Prost; Carlos M. Duarte

doi:10.1038/s43247-025-03021-6

Mummified cave cheetahs inform rewilding actions in Saudi Arabia

Title (eng)

Mummified cave cheetahs inform rewilding actions in Saudi Arabia

Author

Ahmed Al Boug

Zaffar R. Mir

Sharif Jbour

Vincent van der Merwe

Abdullah Al Salem

Abdulmani H. Al-Qahtani

Saleh Al A’amri

Zuhair Amr

Francesco Maria Angelici

Francesco Maria Galassi

Elena Varotto

Mohammed F. Albeshr

Talal Al Shamari

Khalaf Al Shamari

Mohammed Al Mutairi

Pamela A. Burger

University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna

Stefan Prost

Carlos M. Duarte

Abstract (eng)

Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) have experienced a steep population decline globally, extirpated from 91% of their historical range, including Saudi Arabia. Information about cheetahs’ historic range remains scarce throughout much of its former habitat. A serendipitous discovery of seven naturally mummified cheetahs in several caves along with skeletal remains of 54 cheetahs, and their putative prey, in Saudi Arabia provided a valuable opportunity to elucidate the evolutionary history of cheetahs in their former range. We applied paleochronological dating to establish temporal context, genomic sequencing to infer subspecies present during different time periods, and radiographic analysis to determine age classes. The mummified cheetahs showed 14C calibrated ages dated 4223 ± 40 years BP to 127 ± 40 years BP. Full genome sequences of the mummified cheetahs showed that only the youngest individual clustered with A. j. venaticus while the older samples clustered with the West-African cheetah (A. j. hecki). We conclude that rewilding of cheetahs in Arabia can be sourced from the closest subspecies of the discovered cheetahs. Our results highlight the important role caves may play as repositories of ancient biodiversity informing, in the absence of benchmarks rewilding efforts.

Keywords (eng)

Ecological GeneticsEcologyEvolutionary EcologyPalaeontology

Type (eng)

journal article

Language

[eng]

Persistent identifier

https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/o:5297

DOI

10.1038/s43247-025-03021-6

Is in series

Title (eng)