Two of the cheetahs brought from Namibia to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park in September killed their first prey within 24 hours of being released from quarantine into a larger enclosure.
Freddie and Elton, the male siblings, were the first to be released into the enclosure. According to forest department officials, they hunted a cheetal, or spotted deer, between 6 p.m. Sunday and Monday morning.
On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who released the cheetahs on his birthday on September 17, tweeted, “Great news! Following the mandatory quarantine, two cheetahs were released into a larger enclosure for further adaptation to the Kuno habitat. Others will be available soon. I’m also relieved to learn that all of the cheetahs are healthy, active, and adjusting well.”
The eight cheetahs had travelled a long distance — all the way from Namibia, flying 8,000 kilometres over the Indian Ocean — to reach Kuno, a new environment for them. In fact, this is the first time a large carnivore has been moved from one continent to another.
After that, they were kept in quarantine for several days and fed buffalo meat. Freddie and Elton’s first kill so soon after being released indicates that they are in good shape, and the relocation project appears to be on track.
So far, the cheetahs have been kept in quarantine bomas (enclosures) to prevent infection from other animals. They are being released into a larger enclosure in stages, beginning with Freddie and Elton.
The larger enclosures are made up of nine interconnected compartments spread across a 5-square-kilometer area. The separate compartments were designed so that a specific animal can be easily removed if necessary. Each of the nine compartments has nearly 4,000 cheetals released for the cheetahs to hunt.
Oban, Sasha, Siyaya, Savannah, Tbilisi, and Asha are the other six cheetahs. Brothers Freedi and Elton, as well as Savannah and Sasha, will be housed together. Others will be placed in separate compartments. Asha, as named by PM Modi, is suspected of being pregnant and will be relocated only after more information is obtained.
The cheetahs will be released into the 748-square-kilometer Kuno National Park once they have proven to be well-adapted to the larger enclosures. While the enclosure has a large prey base, it lacks other large predators. In fact, its 11.7-kilometer peripheral fence is charged with electricity to keep other animals at bay.
Cheetahs and leopards are known to coexist in Namibia, but the enclosures have been kept leopard-free to ensure the guest animals feel safe in their new environment.
Six sites that were considered for Asiatic Lion translocation in 2010 were re-evaluated in 2020: Mukundara Hills Tiger Reserve and Shergarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Rajasthan, and Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary, Kuno National Park, Madhav National Park, and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh.
Kuno was discovered ready to receive the cheetah as soon as it was prepared for the Asiatic Lion. Both animals live in the same habitat, which includes semi-arid grasslands and forests in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh.
The enhancement of sites necessitated investments in reducing anthropogenic pressures through village relocation, mitigating infrastructure (roadways and railways), and prey augmentation for the cheetah through the translocation of blackbuck, chital, chinkara, and wild boar, among other animals.
According to a 2020 Wildlife Institute of India assessment, the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department had already relocated 24 of the 25 villages in Kuno as part of the lion relocation project, resulting in “remarkable recovery in its habitat, prey abundance, and reduction of human impact.”
