[2] It was first described under the scientific name Cynailurus soemmeringii by the Austrian zoologist Leopold Fitzinger in 1855 on the basis of a specimen from Sudan’s Bayuda Desert brought to the Tiergarten Schönbrunn in Vienna.

[6] Cynailurus soemmeringii was the scientific name proposed by Leopold Fitzinger in 1855, when he described a live male cheetah brought by Theodor von Heuglin from Sudan’s Bayuda Desert in Kordofan to Tiergarten Schönbrunn in Vienna.

The belly of the Northeast African cheetah is distinctly white while its breast and throat can have some black spots similar to the eastern subspecies.

[4] This cheetah has distinct white patches around its eyes but the facial spotting can vary from very dense to relatively thin.

The tear marks of this cheetah are highly inconsistent, but they are frequently thickest at the mouth corners, unlike those of the other four subspecies.

In Ethiopia, this subspecies is resident in Omo, Gambella, Aledeghi, Mago, and Yangudi Rassa National Parks, and in Borena Zone, Ogaden, Afar and the neighbouring Blen-Afar Regions.

Like other subspecies, they are threatened and outranked by larger predators in their area, such as lions,[13] leopards, spotted hyenas and wild dogs, as they can kill cheetahs and steal their carcasses.

Additionally, a single cheetah can chase jackals, golden wolves and a lone wild dog away.

The Northeast African cheetah is threatened by poaching, illegal wildlife trade, hunting, habitat loss, and lack of prey.

There is an increasing rate of Northeast African cheetah cubs mostly from Somaliland being smuggled to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

The main cause for the reduction of woodland cover is firewood collection and charcoal production for sale, and use of wood for construction of houses.

The rewilding project officially started in 2008, when four captive-born Northeast African cheetahs had been reintroduced into the wild of Sir Bani Yas Island to roam free and maintain natural balance.

The cheetahs are taught to breed, to survive and feed on sand and mountain gazelle on their own, then their offspring would successfully learn those instincts from their parents.

[18] Then European zoos started afterwards once the captive-born Northeast African cheetahs from the Arabian peninsula were sent to Zoological collections of Europe in Netherlands and Germany.

Once existing in Egypt, the Ancient Egyptians often kept the cheetahs and raised them as pets, and also tamed and trained them for hunting mammals.

Tamed cheetahs were taken to open hunting fields in low-sided carts or by horseback, hooded and blindfolded, and kept on leashes.

This was the Egyptian tradition that was later passed on to the ancient Persians and brought to India, where the practice with Asiatic cheetahs was continued by Indian princes into the 12th century.