Cheetah Primitive Beliefs

Primitive people had what might seem to us many strange misconceptions about the cheetah. One of the earliest written descriptions of this cat, dated 1578, describes the cheetah as being like a mule. That is, as a mule has a donkey for one parent and a horse for the other, this writer described the cheetah as having a lion and a leopard for parents. Some other strange ideas included:

Characteristic	Belief
physique like a hound	thought to be a dog cat or a link between dogs and cats
clamps prey's throat a long time	believed to "drink blood"
?	cheetah bile mixed with honey & salt would heal a wound
?	rats would avoid cheetah droppings
runs very, very fast	thought to be a bird

Links in this category: History, Evolution, Pets, Classification, Climate (external site), Misconceptions, On Horseback , 37 Kinds of Cats

SOCIAL FOOD APPEARANCE LOCOMOTION VOCAL HABITAT HISTORY EXTINCT ADOPT

Credits . Sitemap . Bibliography . Contact . Copyright/Disclaimer . Home