Scientists have successfully extracted DNA from an ancient cheetah mummy found in a cave in Saudi Arabia. Researchers say this is the first time they have been able to extract genetic information from a naturally mummified ancient big cat, which could lead to the reintroduction of cats to the region.
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Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) are threatened worldwide. Their population has declined dramatically, with only about 7,100 cheetahs remaining. The world’s fastest land mammal, the big cat once roamed across much of Africa and Asia from the Arabian Peninsula to India, but now spans about 9% of its historic range.
There are currently five recognized subspecies of cheetah, four of which live in Africa and one (A. j. venaticus) in Asia. This Asian population is limited to a small group of Iranian cheetahs.
No one knows how many cheetahs once roamed the Arabian Peninsula, or how widespread they were. Similarly, there is little evidence as to when or why they disappeared. Scholars speculate that it was a combination of habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting, and human-wildlife conflict.
But the discovery of a trove of ancient cheetah carcasses, some of them young and some adults, proves they once roamed the region and could provide a blueprint for their return.
“This study provides strong evidence of the historical presence of cheetahs in Saudi Arabia and supports the potential for rewilding in the region to expand their current range and restore some of their former distribution,” Desire Dalton, a forensic scientist at Britain’s Teesside University who studies the use of genomic tools to inform conservation, told Live Science.
In the study, researchers dated samples taken from two mummified cheetahs and five human bones. The oldest skeleton is from a cheetah that died about 4,000 years ago, and the two desiccated cheetahs are 130 and 1,870 years old, respectively.
The research team found evidence that prehistoric cheetahs from Saudi Arabia are most genetically similar to West African Aj cheetahs. Hecky subspecies. Only the youngest specimen analyzed had a closer relationship to the Asian subspecies A. j. Venaticus.
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“Using advanced archaeological, radiological and genomic techniques, the authors demonstrated that there are two lineages of mummified cheetahs,” Kumarasamy Thangaraj, a forensic geneticist at the CSIR Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, India, told Live Science.
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Dalton said the identification of these unique lineages suggests the loss of cheetah diversity may have been greater than scientists previously thought.
But the study provides conservationists with a starting point for potentially reintroducing cheetahs to Saudi Arabia. The authors argue that rewilding cheetahs in the Arabian Peninsula can be sourced from the closest subspecies of cheetah found. Hecki — much more abundant than the Asian subspecies.
The DNA discovery could prove useful in ongoing rewilding efforts. In 2023, Saudi Arabia began a program to reintroduce the Arabian cheetah. A year later, the National Wildlife Center reported the birth of four cheetah cubs and the start of a national cheetah conservation strategy that included the creation of a specialized breeding facility and the establishment of a wild breeding population.
The idea of reintroducing animals using ancient DNA isn’t far-fetched, Dalton says. “Genetic research has led to several successful rewilding projects.” For example, genetic data on the European bison (Bison bonasus) is influencing the breeding and migration strategies of these animals. This reduced the risk that the animals would struggle to adapt to their new environment, she said. She said a project is also underway to conduct ancient DNA analysis of European wolves (Canis lupus lupus) in order to develop targeted management strategies to conserve European wolf biodiversity.
The study authors believe that caves around the world may hold further secrets about ancient species. Caves in arid environments such as Saudi Arabia create hot, dry microclimates perfect for drying animal remains, potentially leading to mummification.
“Additional important insights may yet remain in the arid cave environments of Saudi Arabia and elsewhere that can inform ecological history, evolutionary insights, and practical information for rewilding and conservation,” the authors write.
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