New Delhi: After the deah of two cheetahs at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, South Africa government on Thursday (April 28) said large carnivore reintroductions are extremely complex and inherently risky operations. The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) South Africa said the deaths of two cheetahs are within the “expected” mortality rate of the conservation project.
The cheetahs were translocated to India from Africa as part of an initiative to expand the cheetah meta-population and to reintroduce cheetahs to a former range state.
In a statement issued by DFFE, South Africa said, "The cheetah joined eight of the mammals relocated to India's Kuno National Park from Namibia in September 2022. The two cheetah deaths (one from Namibia and one from South Africa) observed to date are within expected mortality rates for a project of this nature."
‘Large carnivore reintroductions are extremely complex’
The statement further said, "Large carnivore reintroductions are extremely complex and inherently risky operations. This is a critical phase of the project, with cheetahs being released into larger environments where there is increasingly less control over their day-to-day wellbeing. The risks for injury and mortality will be increasing, and these risks are factored into the reintroduction plan."
Death of cheetahs
On Sunday (April 24), one of the Cheetahs 'Uday' translocated from South Africa to Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park died during treatment after falling ill on Sunday. A senior forest official informed that the deceased cheetah 'Uday' was six years old. This is the second incident at the park in almost a month.
Earlier on March 27, five-year-old Sasha, one of the eight cheetahs brought to India from Namibia, succumbed to kidney failure after she was diagnosed with a kidney infection in January.
The South African department said in a statement that an autopsy is awaited but there is no indication that the cheetah died due to an infectious disease. It also said that there is no similar threat to any of the other cheetahs.
"All the South African cheetahs are in larger enclosures and are closely monitored twice daily. As they are wild cheetahs, their behaviour, movements, and body condition must be evaluated from a distance, limiting the ability of teams on the ground to gain precise knowledge of their health status,” it added.
It further said that the remaining eleven South African cheetahs will be released into free-ranging conditions over the next two months. “Kuno is an unfenced protected area that supports a high density of competing predators including leopards, wolves, sloth bears, and striped hyenas. It is anticipated that, as observed with cheetah reintroductions in Africa, a few of the founder population may be lost within the first-year post-release", the statement said.
Many of the released cheetahs will escape the boundaries of Kuno National Park and may have to go through short-term stress during the recapture process. Once the cheetahs have established home ranges, the situation will stabilise, it said.
Reintroduction of Cheetah to India
Earlier this year, the governments of South Africa and India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation on the Reintroduction of Cheetah to India. The MoU facilitates cooperation between the two countries to establish a viable and secure cheetah population in India; promotes conservation and ensures that expertise is shared and exchanged, and capacity is built, to promote cheetah conservation. This includes human-wildlife conflict resolution, capture and translocation of wildlife and community participation in conservation in the two countries.
(With ANI inputs)
Also Read: Madhya Pradesh: After Sasha, another cheetah 'Uday' dies at Kuno National Park
Also Read: Good news! Cheetah brought from Namibia gives birth to 4 cubs at Kuno National Park
