One more African cheetah, Tejas, dies in MP’s Kuno National Park; 7th since March

“A medical team was rushed to the spot. Wildlife doctors inspected the cheetah and prima facie found the wounds to be serious. The cheetah was later found dead at the spot around 2 pm. The injuries sustained by Tejas are being probed. The cause of death will be ascertained after the post-mortem,” Chouhan said, adding that wildlife officials are also probing if the death was injured as a result of a violent encounter.

“Tejas was inside an enclosure with a Namibian female cheetah, Savana. There are also wild boars inside the enclosure, but the chances of them causing this death are slim since they mainly attack the legs. There are no leopards inside the enclosure and the injury marks are not consistent with that of a leopard. The post-mortem will clear the circumstances surrounding this death,” Chouhan said.

On June 27, a violent encounter took place between two cheetah coalitions, which wildlife officials said may have been due to territorial disputes. According to the officials, Namibian cheetahs Guarav and Shaurya, known as “The Rock Stars”, fiercely defended their territory against a South African coalition Agni and Vayu, called “The White Walkers”.

With Tejas’s death, seven felines, including three cubs born to Namibian cheetah Jwala, have died at KNP since March in a setback to the reintroduction programme launched with much fanfare in September last year. The latest death came a day after two more male cheetahs were released into the wild at KNP.

On May 9, a 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 March 27, a Namibian cheetah named Sasha died of kidney complications. Sasha was believed to have contracted the kidney ailment during its captivity in Namibia and had been unwell since arriving at Kuno.

Three of four cubs born to Jwala died in May. While the first cub died on May 23 due to suspected weakness, the other two died on May 25 due to “extreme weather condition and dehydration”. —With PTI inputs