Seven cheetahs born in Kuno: Challenges, survival chances, and the wild-vs-protected debate

What are the different stages in a Cheetah cub’s life?

According to the Cheetah Conservation Fund, the gestation period for a cheetah is 93 days, and litters range in size from one to six cubs. At birth, the “cubs weigh 8.5 to 15 ounces and are blind and helpless” and their “mother will groom them patiently, purring quietly and providing them warmth and security.”

In a few days, the mother will leave to hunt. The cubs will live in a secluded nest for the next six to eight weeks, being regularly moved by their mother from nest to nest to avoid detection by predators. The cubs begin joining their mother on its daily travels around six weeks of age. This period is fraught with danger for the cubs, with “less than one in 10 surviving.” The only protection that a cub has apart from its mother — whose mobility is restricted due to the babies — is a “long mantle of hair on their backs, which serves the dual purpose of keeping them warm and helping hide them from predators who mistake them for the aggressive honey badger.”

Between four to six months of age, cheetah cubs are very active and playful as they begin gripping tall ‘play trees’ that they climb. These trees serve as observational points that will one day help them survey the landscape for prey and keep a look out for predators.

Around one year of age, the cubs begin hunting with the mother, learning important skills like prey detection, stalking, chasing, tripping (prey capture), and killing by means of a suffocation bite. At about 18 months, they seperate from their mother. While male siblings form a coalition and hunt together, the females lead a solitary life, until their own cubs are born.

What do wildlife officials do when they suspect a pregnancy?

Cheetahs usually start reproducing soon after reaching sexual maturity at 26-40 months of age. They conceive again only after a litter becomes independent or is lost.

According to the Husbandry Manual for the Cheetah, compiled by a list of cheetah experts from around the world in 2009, pregnancy can be difficult to confirm, especially during the first trimester.

MP wildlife officials said once they confirm a cheetah is pregnant, they ensure the expecting mother is well fed. “We just maintain belly scores. You visually observe the belly of the cheetah to see if it’s round or sunken. If it is sunken, it means it hasn’t eaten and may need food. Since the cheetahs are present inside larger enclosures and there is a steady population of Chitals, the mothers are well fed. We maintain data on the Chital population inside the mother’s enclosure and keep supplementing it. There is emphasis on minimum intervention to ensure there is no stress to the mother,” said an official at KNP.

Since there has been reported cases in the wild of males committing infanticide, the “presence or odor of males may be extremely stressful to a mother with cubs,” the manual says.

What is the standard protocol to deal with cheetah mother and cubs?

Petro Van Eeden, General Manager at the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre, South Africa, told The Indian Express that in her experience, the “best thing is the cub should stay with mom.”

“They have the best instincts. The hunting instincts will be transferred to the cubs, that is always the first priority. Taking them away from the mom is the last resort. You should support the mom in such a way that you reduce stress for the cheetah. The main cause of stress is people and movement, and activity around them. No visitors should allowed,” she said.

“When they get to 8 weeks to 2 months old we start vaccinations. It is important to get vaccinations at specific intervals. Also they need to have supplements like Vitamin A, copper and calcium to ensure they have proper eye sight and strong bone development,” she said.

Eeden stressed on the importance of avoiding a bacterial infection during the early stages of a cub’s life. “The environment should be clean and you should reduce people’s interaction. Until they have their vaccinations, they should be left alone,” she said.

When do officials need to intervene?

Jwala delivered her first litter in March last year — the first cheetah cubs to be born in the park. But the timing of the births coincided with the rough weather conditions that swept through the sanctuary, and three of her cubs died in May. The sole surviving cub, which was also observed to be weak and could have met the same fate, was taken away when Jwala was feeding on a fresh kill.

However, this had consequences, as once the cub was nursed back to health and reintroduced to Jwala a week later, she attacked it. The park officials have said Jwala was a captive-raised cheetah, and hence lacked the necessary skills to raise her own litter. Now that she is a second-time mother, park officials are watching her closely in hopes that she takes care of the cubs.

According to the manual, “if the female is neglectful or harmful (ignoring the cubs, failing to clean or nurse them, frequent carrying, or cannibalising a live cub) the cubs will probably need to be pulled and hand-reared.”

What are the chances of the cubs surviving?

According to a research paper titled ‘Challenges for Cheetah reintroduction into unfenced protected areas by the Metropolitan Initiative’, “first-time mothers often lose their entire first litter, but learn important lessons in the process.” The paper had also stated that in “Tanzania’s open Serengeti system, cheetah cubs were estimated to have only a 4.8% survival rate from birth to adolescence”.

There is a debate underway between the experts in South Africa, who frown upon the cubs and the mother being raised inside protected enclosures, and wildlife officials in Kuno, who opt to raise the cubs inside larger enclosures before their release into the wild.

Cheetah experts are of the view that the cubs should ideally be raised in the wild under free-ranging conditions. There is a concern among experts that weak genetics accumulated may persist among the captive cheetahs and eventually weaken the gene pool, resulting in animals that need constant human intervention for survival.

A senior South African cheetah expert, who played a key role in India’s Project Cheetah, said since Kuno officials will keep the cubs safe in enclosures, away from predators, “they are going to artificially protect the cubs from danger and you are not protecting the best genetics.”

Furthermore, housing cheetahs in small enclosures has been linked to “stress related behaviors, medical conditions and reduced reproductive performance.”

Eeden said though the preference is always for a “free cheetah mom raising her cubs, however, this comes at a high risk”.

The Kuno Park director Uttam Sharma has said that both view points are being considered, and the park officials are waiting for seniors to take a call.