One more cheetah dies at Kuno, ninth since March
One female cheetah is out in the open and is under intensive monitoring by the team. Efforts are underway to bring her back to an enclosure for a health examination.
Representative image
BHOPAL: One more cheetah has died at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, making it the ninth feline to die since March, according to a statement from the state forest department.
“This morning, one of the female cheetahs -- Dhatri (Tbilisi) -- was found dead. A post-mortem is being conducted to determine the cause of death,” the statement read.
Fourteen cheetahs -- seven males, six females and a female cub -- are kept in enclosures in Kuno. A team comprising Kuno wildlife veterinarians and a Namibian expert regularly monitors their health.
One female cheetah is out in the open and is under intensive monitoring by the team. Efforts are underway to bring her back to an enclosure for a health examination.
Last month, two cheetahs died due to infection in wounds caused by the radio collars around necks. However, the environment ministry said all deaths were due to natural causes.
Experts involved in the cheetah reintroduction project say heavy rain, extreme heat, and humidity may have caused the problems, “with the collars fitted around the necks of the cheetahs potentially causing additional complications”.
Following the deaths, all the cheetahs, except two females, were brought back to their enclosures for examination. An expert veterinarian from South Africa cleaned up the wounds. All the cheetahs have beenw administered Fluralaner, a systemic insecticide and acaricide given orally or topically.
On July 20, the Supreme Court had said the death of eight cheetahs (till then) in the KNP in less than one year did not present a good picture, and asked the Centre to explore the possibility of shifting the animals to different sanctuaries.
