Marita the Cheetah
Learn about the rarest cat of all – the Asiatic cheetah of Iran!
Marita the Cheetah is the true story about an orphaned cheetah cub that was rescued in 1995, by Lobat’s father, Dr. Hormoz Asadi, in Iran.
The book is a touching story about a father & daughter who are brought together by saving a tiny, frail, cheetah cub, Marita, which means “beloved,” from harm.
Marita the Cheetah
Learn about the rarest cat of all –
the Asiatic cheetah of Iran!
Marita the Cheetah is the true story about an orphaned cheetah cub that was rescued in 1995, by Lobat’s father, Dr. Hormoz Asadi, in Iran.
The book is a touching story about a father & daughter who are brought together by saving a tiny, frail, cheetah cub, Marita, which means “beloved,” from harm.
Forward by George B. Schaller
Dr. Schaller is known for several groundbreaking studies including lions oof the Serengeti, and gorillas in the Congo, with Dr. Leakey and Dr. Fossey. He has helped save pandas in China, snow leopards in Mongolia and jaguars in the Latin America. In 1967, he won the National Book Award for the first ever, two year long seminal study on lions,”The Serengeti Lion.” He is a WWF Gold Medal and two time National Geographic Lifetime Award recipient.
Author, Lobat Asadi is thrilled and honored to include insights by the legendary wildlife conservationist in the Foreword of Marita the Cheetah. He is the only Western scientist who was invited many times to Iran to help save Asiatic cheetahs.
Forward by
George B. Schaller
Dr. Schaller is known for several groundbreaking studies including lions oof the Serengeti, and gorillas in the Congo, with Dr. Leakey and Dr. Fossey. He has helped save pandas in China, snow leopards in Mongolia and jaguars in the Latin America. In 1967, he won the National Book Award for the first ever, two year long seminal study on lions,”The Serengeti Lion.” He is a WWF Gold Medal and two time National Geographic Lifetime Award recipient.
Author, Lobat Asadi is thrilled and honored to include insights by the legendary wildlife conservationist in the Foreword of Marita the Cheetah. He is the only Western scientist who was invited many times to Iran to help save Asiatic cheetahs.
The True Story Behind Asiatic Cheetah Day
Meet Marita & her family!
I was thirsty and starving, but I was too scared to leave my babies to fetch a rabbit or two that night.
So, I decided I would tell my three cubs everything I had learned from Grandmother cheetah to remind me of our family tree.
“From the very first time people saw us, they could tell cheetahs were very different from leopards. The are only called palang because they just lounge in trees all day. We are the “yooz-palang.” Yooz means nimble, unlike those feeble palang! Cheetahs are the fastest animals on Earth!
Baby cubs one, two and three, when cheetahs had more land, and we were free, we ran all the way from the cold mountains into green valley. There we saw monkeys that lived in castles! And people who love elephants so much they put flowers on their necks and paint their eyes with black lines – like you and me!
My babies, you must outlive me” Then, I licked my babies heart shaped noses, and each one of their 2000 or so black spots until shiny and clean.