Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, July 14: A translocated cheetah from Namibia named Suraj passed away on Friday at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, just a few days after the loss of the seventh cheetah brought in from South Africa. In the last five months, eight cheetahs had passed away, including him.
Suraj’s death’s cause is still unknown. Ten cheetahs remain alive at Kuno National Park after Suraj’s passing. Tuesday morning, Cheetah Tejas apparently suffered an injury and passed away.
On March 27, it was announced that the first cheetah had passed away. Sasha, a female, had suffered from kidney disease. One of the male cheetahs from South Africa named Uday passed away in April due to heart problems. A female cheetah from South Africa named Daksha was killed earlier in May following a battle with two males.
Four cubs were born to Siyaya (Jwala) in March. However, a two-month-old cub of the Cheetah Siyaya perished in Kuno two months later, in May. The cub’s apparent cause of death was weakness. Two additional of Siyaya’s cheetah babies perished in the same month, days after the first cub.
Vincent Van Der Merwe, a South African cheetah metapopulation expert had said: “Whilst the loss of one of Siyaya’s cubs is unfortunate, the loss is well within expected mortality rates for cheetah cubs. Cub mortality is particularly high for wild cheetahs. For this reason, cheetahs have evolved to give birth to large litters compared to other wild cats. This enables them to compensate for the high cub mortality rate.”
“The death was attributed to dehydration. Weaker cheetah cubs in a litter will typically suckle less than their stronger siblings. This death should be viewed within the context of ‘survival of the fittest’. As part of the natural selection process, weaker cheetahs will be eliminated from the gene pool. This ensures that only the fittest and strongest survive, to the benefit of wild cheetah survival,” he added.
On September 17 of last year, eight cheetahs that had been transported to India from Namibia were let loose at Kuno. Twelve more cheetahs, six of which are in the wild, were brought in from South Africa in February and other six are housed in various Kuno enclosures.
