Days after cheetah's death, Kuno National Park reports birth of four cubs

Aim now is to ensure cubs survive; on cheetah death, ministry officials say 50% mortality was expected

A reason to mourn and four reasons to cheer. Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park, where the sprint of hope was interrupted on March 27 when Sasha, one of the eight Namibian cheetahs translocated here in September last year, died, has reported the birth of four cheetah cubs.

The news that one of the Namibian cheetahs had given birth to four cubs was confirmed by Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, who also shared pictures and a video of the cubs on Twitter.

With these births, India has got its own cheetah cubs after the 1940s, when the animal went extinct in the country due to excessive poaching. 

“A momentous event in our wildlife conservation history during Amrit Kaal. I am delighted to share that four cubs have been born to one of the cheetahs translocated to India on 17th September 2022, under the visionary leadership of PM,” Yadav tweeted on Tuesday.

While the news has caused a good amount of excitement, it has also increased the complexity of Project Cheetah.

The project now has an added challenge since the mortality of cheetah cubs is higher in protected areas such as national parks and wildlife reserves due to greater proximity to large predators. In such areas, the cheetah cub mortality can be as high as 90 per cent. At birth, the cubs weigh a mere 240 to 425 gm and are blind and helpless.

The aim now is to ensure the cubs survive for more than a year. The mother cheetah will also need space and quiet so that her stress levels are low and she is able to focus on rearing her cubs.

After a day or so, she is expected to leave the cubs for the period she goes out hunting. This, say wildlife experts, is the most vulnerable time for the cubs as they are left unprotected. During these first few months, the mother cannot move far or fast, and the cub mortality is the highest, the experts add. Fewer than one in 10 cubs usually survive this period. 

Investigating the death

Meanwhile, the death of the cheetah two days ago is being investigated. The five-year-old female cheetah, Sasha, had died while in a quarantine centre due to a kidney infection. According to the Madhya Pradesh forest department, the cheetah had been suffering from the infection since last year, having picked it up while in captivity in Namibia.

Officials in the environment ministry who are part of Project Cheetah maintain that the internal assessment done before the translocation had already factored in the possibility of fatality, and that the incident will have no impact on the project.

“We had expected a mortality rate of around 50 per cent,” an official working on Project Cheetah told Business Standard. “In fact, cases of cheetah mortality are witnessed during transportation in almost all the translocation processes,” he said, adding that that didn’t happen when the cheetahs were flown to India.

According to the Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetah in India, achieving 50 per cent survival of the cheetahs in the first year was the target set for the success of the project for the short term.

While the ministry has started its investigation, the problem is there is no standard operating procedure (SOP) to probe cheetah deaths.

“As of now there is no specific SOP to investigate the death of a cheetah, but a protocol similar to what is followed for tigers and other carnivores will apply,” an environment ministry official said.

The medical examination report is expected within a week. Any action will be taken only after assessing the postmortem report, the official added.

Probable cause of death

According to the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), chronic kidney disease is commonly seen in captive cheetahs as well as in domestic cats. It is not completely understood why captive cheetahs are more prone to this condition than their wild counterparts, but diet, age, genetic diversity and chronic stress are said to be risk factors.

Project Cheetah’s lead scientist YV Jhala said the death is a result of lifestyle diseases.

When cheetahs are kept in captivity for long and are given processed food, they are at a risk of such a disease since in captivity, their exercises are limited. Cheetahs need skin, hair, collagen and other internal organs like lives, spleen, intestine etc, which they can only get in the wild.

In these situations, around 90 per cent of animals get kidney problems. In the case of captive animals, of all animals that get kidney problems, 90 per cent die, Jhala explains.

“This is not an infectious disease. It can happen to any animal that has been kept in captivity for long,” Jhala told Business Standard. “In this case, this animal had been in captivity for a very long time and its exercise levels were low. The remaining cheetahs have now been released so they do well.”  

The questions

Several wildlife experts have questioned the decision of the environment ministry’s task force to translocate Sasha even when its medical report clearly mentioned that its creatinine level was higher than the prescribed limit.

“Cheetah cannot survive in a highly stressful situation,” a wildlife expert said, requesting anonymity. “Though the mortality rate is high in cheetahs, in this case it seems to be a failure of judgement by the experts.”

Sasha's creatinine level was 400 in the final medical check, the government said in a statement. However, the CCF on Tuesday clarified that all cheetahs translocated to India in September last year had undergone an “extensive health examination”.

“We will always cherish our memories of Sasha and we will continue to research kidney disease in cheetahs to help ensure better early detection and treatment," CCF said in a tweet.

When asked why the cheetah was brought to India if it had some disease, Jhala says that all the animals were clean when brought.

The country’s apex court has also taken note of the cheetah’s death. The Supreme Court has asked the government to place on record the details, on an affidavit, of the qualification and experience of the members of the task force within two weeks and also specify as to which of the members possess an expertise in cheetah management.