The South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has released a statement regarding the deaths of two cheetahs that were brought to India, which raised questions about their care. The DFFE has clarified that carnivore reintroductions in alien climates are extremely complex and come with inherent risks. The department stated that the death of two cheetahs is within the expected mortality rates for a project of this nature.
The statement mentioned that the cheetahs were among eight mammals that were relocated to India’s Kuno National Park from Namibia in September 2022. The two cheetah deaths that occurred are said to be within expected mortality rates for a project of this nature, one being from Namibia and the other from South Africa. Large carnivore reintroductions are extremely complex and inherently risky operations. The cheetahs are being released into larger environments where there is increasingly less control over their day-to-day wellbeing.
The South African authorities are awaiting an autopsy report of the death of the cheetahs, but there is no indication that the animals may have died due to any form of infectious disease or that there was any threat to their survival in India. 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.
The cheetahs arrived in India aboard a C-17 Globemaster cargo plane of the Indian Air Force from Johannesburg in South Africa on February 18, 2023. The healthy cheetahs were released in the Kuno National Park, located in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. However, on March 27, one of the eight Namibian cheetahs named Sasha, aged little more than four-and-a-half-years, died in the park. The media reported that Sasha died due to cardiopulmonary failure.
Last week, the second Namibian cheetah, named Uday, a male, died. The Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Wildlife, JS Chauhan, revealed that during the inspection in the morning, Uday was found dull with head down, following which veterinarians attending to him alerted senior officials, and the feline was taken out from the large enclosure for treatment. Unfortunately, around 4 pm, the cheetah passed away.
All 12 mammals were brought to India under ‘Project Cheetah’, which was launched in September 2022 to reintroduce the species decades after it went extinct in the country.
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