2023-05-09 18:46:55
A female cheetah that had arrived in India from South Africa as part of a reintroduction program for these felines was killed on Tuesday by her partner during their mating, Kuno National Park announced.
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Daksha was one of twelve cheetahs transported from South Africa to Kuno National Park, about 300 km south of New Delhi, as part of this project to reintroduce this species to India, which disappeared from its territory there. is over 70 years old. Their arrival in February took place in the presence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Initial examinations reveal that the injuries to the female cheetah appear to have been caused by the male cheetah,” the national park explained.
“Violent behavior like this is normal during mating,” he added in the statement. “It is impossible to monitor them in this situation”.
Daksha’s death is the third of an African cheetah in India since March. Sasha, a male from Namibia, died in March from kidney failure, and Uday, a male from South Africa, died in April after falling ill.
India was once home to the Asian cheetah, but it was declared extinct in 1952.
This ambitious project, which aims to reintroduce a hundred cheetahs in India over the next decade, has drawn criticism from several experts. Some point out that these felines, the fastest land animals in the world, may find it difficult to adapt to their new Indian habitat due to competition for prey with leopards.
Scientists from the Namibian Leibniz-IZW Institute’s Cheetah Research Project have pointed out that the program ignores “spatial ecology” and that Kuno National Park is much less than the wide open spaces these felines need to live. prosper.
A carnivorous mammal in the family Felidae, whose ancestors date back around 8.5 million years, cheetahs once roamed Asia and Africa in large numbers, according to the Cheetah Conservation Fund, CCF ), located in Namibia.
Only about 7,000 specimens remain today, mainly in the African savannahs.
The cheetah is considered “vulnerable” on the Red List of Threatened Species.
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