Another female cheetah has died at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, in a jolt to the government’s ambitious wildlife project to restore the population of the endangered animal in the country. It is the third death of a big cat in over five weeks.
The female cheetah, Daksha, was among the 12 felines specially airlifted from South Africa to India in February. According to the park officials, the animal was found injured in the enclosure (Bomas) around 10:45 am on Tuesday. She was immediately shifted for further treatment, however, succumbed two hours later.
“The female cheetah was released into the first Bomas and there were two male cheetahs – Vayu and Agni — in the adjoining enclosure number seven. On May 1, the gates of the two bomas were opened to enable interaction between the animals, and encourage mating. All the three cats are from South Africa,” read a statement from the state’s wildlife department.
However, it seems the male coalition overpowered the female cheetah during courtship which led to fatal injuries.
According to the park officials, the decision to open the gates was taken on the advice of the expert group of wildlife specialists who had visited Kuno on April 30.
GOVT STATEMENT
“The female cheetah Daksha released from South Africa in Kuno National Park was found fatally injured by the monitoring team on 09.05.2023 at 10:45 am. Treatment was done by the veterinarians but said Cheetah died tragically at 12.00 noon the same day. Prima facie, the wounds found on the female cheetah Daksha seem to have been caused by a violent interaction with the male, during the courtship/ mating attempt. Such violent behaviours by male coalition cheetahs towards female cheetahs during mating are common. In such a situation, the chances of intervention by the monitoring team are almost non-existent and practically impossible. The autopsy of the dead female cheetah (Daksha) is being carried out by the veterinary team as per the protocol,” according to the government statement.
SETBACK
The team of experts constituted on the directions of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) consisted of wildlife specialists from South Africa’s University of Pretoria, Cheetah Metapopulation Project, The Metapopulation Initiative, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun and NTCA, Delhi.
The group had also recommended the release of five more big cats into free roaming conditions, who were to join the four Namibian felines already in the wild. This comes as another setback to the government’s multi-crore project to restore the population of the vulnerable big cat specie. Especially at a time, when it was still in the process of investigating the death of the male cheetah, Uday, on April 23.
India has so far lost three of the 20 big cats – two females and one male – it had flown in from Namibia and South Africa since September 2022. While Sasha died of kidney failure on April 29, Uday died due to a cardio-pulmonary failure. However, the exact cause that led to the condition remains unclear.
Read all the Latest India News and Karnataka Elections 2023 updates here
Comments
0 comment