Global Courant 2023-05-20 01:34:58
For centuries, cheetahs have roamed vast swathes of India, loitering among lions, tigers and leopards. They were declared extinct in 1952 after decades of hunting by princely rulers and British colonizers, shrinking habitats and disappearing prey.
Last year, the Indian government attempted to bring back cheetahs by reintroducing the species to the country, bringing 20 from South Africa and Namibia.
Those efforts suffered another setback this month after the death of a third cheetah in 45 days in Kuno National Park, a wildlife sanctuary in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. In the latter case, a female cheetah was killed during a violent interaction with two older males after they were placed in the same enclosure to mate.
Another male cheetah brought from South Africa in February died of apparent heart failure last month. And a female from the Namibian group, made up of five males and three females, died in March of suspected kidney disease.
The three deaths prompted judges at India’s highest court to beg the federal government to do so consider looking for an alternative place for the newly resettled cheetahs.
“Kuno is not enough to accommodate,” the High Court of Justices B.R. Gavai and Sanjay Karol said on Thursday in New Delhi. They talked about the wildlife sanctuary, where authorities have kept the cheetahs since they moved.
“You bring animals from abroad and in one place they can become completely extinct,” the jury added. “Why don’t you try another remedy?”
They suggested that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government consider relocating some of the cheetahs to Rajasthan, and warned that politics should play no role. “Just because Rajasthan is ruled by an opposition party doesn’t mean you won’t consider it,” the judges said.
Government representative Aishwarya Bhati told the court that the deaths are under investigation and other locations are being considered.
The violent mating death of the female cheetah, known as Daksha, raised some concern that the confinement of the cheetahs in the Kuno Reserve could have contributed to the aggressive behavior of the males.
Last month, a team of experts from South Africa suggested to Kuno park officials that two males interact with Daksha. The gates of her abode were opened to two older big tomcats named Agni and Vayu, with whom she was brought to India in February.
Daksha died just hours after the two badly injured her during mating attempts. Jasbir Chauhan, a top forest conservator, said the autopsy report suggested her skull had been “brutally crushed” by the two men and her back was also badly injured.
“Those injuries caused her death,” said Mr. Chauhan. “We never expected this to happen. This was a regrettable incident.”
In an earlier interview, Mr. Chauhan said the park officials had no expertise in cheetahs and relied on the South African team’s advice.
When a male meets a female, experts say, interactions can be aggressive and usually intimidating to the female, whose territory is often restricted during mating. If the female is not receptive, the male will bite his own testicles.
A male coalition often surrounds a female, and if she tries to escape, they beat and bite her, sometimes savagely attacking her neck, head, and vulva, resulting in death. Males end mating encounters only when they lose interest and move away, according to experts.
“All previous interactions between males and females in large enclosures have been cordial, so maybe the monitoring teams got a little complacent,” said Vincent van der Merwe, an official with South Africa’s Cheetah Metapopulation Initiative, which is working with the Indian government to promote repopulation. the best predators.
Mr Chauhan disagreed with that assessment and said there had been detailed discussions about how to proceed with the mating sessions. “They know more about cheetahs than we do,” he said.
“They should have raised the possibility of a violent response.”
Mr Merwe also said the long-term captivity of the cheetahs in Kuno had led to increased stress levels in the big cats.
In 10 years, they had only seen males kill females four times, he said. Most cheetah-on-cheetah deaths involve males killing other males.
Some big cat experts also said that Kuno, with an area of about 748 square miles, was not suitable for cheetahs, which live in areas spanning thousands of square miles. They may be at risk from other predators and a lack of suitable prey.
Previous attempts to reintroduce cheetahs to India were unsuccessful. The latest effort involves the Indian government’s plans to spend about $11 million over five years to determine whether populations of the largest predators can be restored to parts of the country where they once thrived. Up to 40 cheetahs can be part of the program.
The cheetah species dates back to about 8.5 million years ago and the population is estimated to be less than 8,000, mostly in Africa and a few in Iran, having declined by half in the past four decades.
Cheetahs are part of the folklore of rural India and carry great symbolism. Following the reintroduction, Indian authorities believe a growing big cat population is likely to benefit from broader conservation goals by improving overall protection and ecotourism in areas that have long been neglected.
Recognize researchersd that India’s plan to reintroduce the big cats was hasty and did not take into account spatial ecology. Kuno is small in size and cheetahs can stray well beyond its boundaries once the newcomers are released into the wild.
Ravi Chellam, a naturalist, said that while the previous two deaths were considered natural by authorities, the cat’s death could have been prevented, adding that it was important to understand the context and reasons for the death.
Mr Chellam said a few deaths did not necessarily mean project failure, just as a few births did not indicate project success. (One of the Namibian cheetahs gave birth to four cubs.)
“All three cheetahs died in captivity before they were released,” he said.
