Kuno’s cheetahs make first kill in wild within day of moving to larger enclosure

Elton and Freddie chased down a male spotted dear and killed it, officials said, adding that the hunt was the completion of the first step towards their successful translocation.

Elton and Freddie, the two male cheetahs brought from Namibia to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, killed their first prey on Sunday night, officials said, within 24 hours of the two brothers being released from a quarantine into a larger enclosure.

Some wildlife activists had raised questions about the ability of the translocated cheetahs to hunt in the wild..

The cheetahs chased down a male spotted dear and killed it, officials said, adding that the hunt was the completion of the first step towards their successful translocation.

“The cheetahs hunted down a cheetal (spotted deer) on Sunday night,” Chief Conservator of Forest Uttam Kumar Sharma told news agency PTI.

Some wildlife activists had raised questions about the ability of the translocated cheetahs to hunt in the wild.

The forest monitoring team received information of the hunt on Monday morning, the officials said. The two cheetahs, and six others were flown into India in September as part of India’s ambitious attempt at reintroducing a species that had once roamed Indian grasslands, before being hunted into extinction in the 1950s.

Freddie and Elton were the first pair to be released into the larger enclosure on Saturday after being quarantined since September 17. The successful first hunt has allayed the park management’s concerns about their ability to fend for themselves in the wild.

“Freddie and Elton were released from the quarantine enclosure into soft release predator free enclosure of 6 sq km after 50 days. They are adapting the new habitat without any stress,” said JS Chauhan, principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife). The area also has leopards, with whom the cheetahs cohabit in Africa, although, the former, by virtue of being bigger, sometimes hunt cheetahs.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17 released the eight cheetahs; the intercontinental relocation project is being closely watched by scientists and wildlife experts from around the world.

“Great news! Am told that after the mandatory quarantine, 2 cheetahs have been released to a bigger enclosure for further adaptation to the Kuno habitat. Others will be released soon. I’m also glad to know that all cheetahs are healthy, active and adjusting well,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Saturday.

The third male cheetah will be released into the larger enclosure next week but forest officials will release five female cheetahs only after shifting a female leopard from the enclosure, Chauhan said on Monday.

Three leopards had been roaming the enclosure since July. While called enclosures, the area where the two cheetahs have been released have soft borders.

Forest officials and experts from Wildlife Institute of India (WII) made several efforts to remove the leopards from the enclosure before the cheetahs were released; they even brought in elephants from the Satpura Tiger Reserve in August. Efforts were also made to trap them, said Prakash Verma, divisional forest officer, Sheopur.

A leopard was caught in a big cage trap while the second leopard left the enclosure on its own, the DFO said.

The leopard’s “presence is still a threat to female cheetahs so they will not be shifted until relocation of leopard,” a senior forest official said, asking not to be named.

After all the cheetahs are released into the soft enclosure, they will be released in the wild in phases. “The way Freddie and Elton are adapting in the habitat, they will be released in the wild within three-four months,” Chauhan said.

Under the relocation project, India is supposed to also bring in 12 cheetahs from South Africa, but delays in signing an agreement have meant that there is no clear timeline on when that will happen.