Radio collar goes silent, Kuno officials try old-school ways to track female cheetah

This is part of an exercise being carried out by wildlife officials to track down free-ranging cheetahs and bring them back to their enclosures so their radio collars can be removed and the animals can be checked for possible signs of infection caused due to wet weather conditions. This comes after two male cheetahs died within a span of three days in July.

Principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF-wildlife) Aseem Shrivastava told The Indian Express, “We have a dedicated team made up of wildlife officials and Namibian cheetah experts who are trying to track down the two remaining cheetahs. These two are skittish and avoid human interaction, which is making it very difficult to track them down. In African countries, some of these cheetahs are used to human interaction so it makes it easier to medically examine them.”

Wildlife officials said they are employing elephants and taking the help of local villagers to track the two big cats.

“Elephants are tracking them; we have ground teams working 24×7. We have cameras to trace their movements by their pug marks so we increase the chances of sighting and collecting evidence of their presence and can track them down,” Shrivastav said.

Asked why Nirva’s radio collar had stopped transmitting the signal, Shrivastav said, “This is a technical issue and it can happen. Sometimes, these collars may have a battery life of a year and you may need to recharge the battery in six months. It is normal in these cases.”

Officials said Dhatri will soon be tranquilised and brought back to the enclosure.

Wildlife officials have managed to bring back nine free-ranging cheetahs from the Kuno National Park to their respective enclosures. Officials examined the cheetahs and a coalition of Namibian brothers, Gaurav and Shaurya, also known as The Rockstars, reported serious infection, which has been treated. Wildlife authorities said that all cheetahs back at the enclosure are healthy.

At least five of the 20 cheetahs translocated from Namibia and South Africa to Kuno since September last have died due to various reasons.

The first, on March 27, was a Namibian cheetah named Sasha, who died of a kidney ailment. Officials believe Sasha had the problem before its arrival at Kuno.

On May 9, female cheetah Daksha, brought from South Africa, died following a “violent interaction” with two male cheetahs during mating. Daksha’s death came close on the heels of the death of Uday, who had taken ill in April.

On July 14, male cheetah Suraj died, and on July 11, male cheetah Tajas was found dead. Both had injuries on the neck and multiple organ failure. South African experts and wildlife officials suspected that an infection broke out due to wet weather conditions and abrasions caused by radio collars resulting in septicemia.

On July 17, the Madhya Pradesh government removed J S Chauhan from his position as the state’s chief wildlife warden, days after he said he was considering removing the radio collars. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had meanwhile said that reports of cheetah deaths due to radio collars were not based on scientific evidence, and that “all mortalities are due to natural causes”.

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