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Amid 'sweltering heat', cheetah in Madhya Pradesh had 4 cubs. Only 1 alive now
The wild cat had already lost a cub to suspected dehydration and weakness on Tuesday and is now left with only one newborn.
Two of the cubs born to Namibian cheetah Jwala at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh died on Thursday amid sweltering heat. The latest fatality took the death toll of cheetahs, translocated from African countries to the Kuno National Park, to six in the last two months. Officials have suspected that the deaths of the cubs were a case of dehydration and weakness.
“When the monitoring team visited the park, the cub looked weak, so the team called veterinary doctors and took the cub to the hospital but after 5-10 minutes, the cub died,” JS Chouhan, the MP chief conservator of forests, said.
Cheetah Jwala, earlier known as Siyaya, was brought from Namibia to Kuno in Sheopur district in September 2022. She gave birth to four cubs in the last week of March this year.
The wild cat had already lost a cub to suspected dehydration and weakness on Tuesday and is now left with only one newborn.
While experts called the death “unfortunate,” they said it was “within expected mortality rates.”
Also read | Inadequate space for cheetahs in Kuno National Park, claims ex-WII official
“Cub mortality is particularly high for wild cheetahs. For this reason, cheetahs have evolved to give birth to large litters compared to other wild cats. This enables them to compensate for high cub mortality rate. Weaker cheetah cubs in a litter will typically survive less than their stronger siblings. This death should be viewed within the context of ‘survival of the fittest’,” Vincent Van Der Merwe, South Africa metapopulation project head, said.
The South African cheetah expert also suggested that India should fence two to three habitats for cheetahs as there has never been a successful reintroduction into an unfenced reserve in recorded history.
The Supreme Court recently expressed concerns over the death of cheetahs in Kuno and asked the Madhya Pradesh government to rise “above politics” and consider shifting a few to Rajasthan.
“It appears that Kuno is not sufficient for so many cheetahs… Why don’t you look for a suitable place in Rajasthan? Merely because Rajasthan is ruled by (an) Opposition party does not mean you will not consider it,” the top court told Centre.
