Two-Month-Old Cub Born To Namibian Cheetah Dies In Kuno National Park

Prima facie, the two-month-old cub died due to weakness, said the forest department in a release.

A two-month-old cub died in Kuno National Park/Representational Image

A two-month-old cheetah cub died at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, said the forest department. Prime facie, the cub died of weakness, said the forest department in a release, as per a report by PTI. The latest fatality has taken the total number of felines who died in the national park to four in the last two months. 

"The monitoring team found that one of the four cubs of feline 'Jwala' was lying at the spot where they were spotted earlier while three other cubs were roaming with their mother. The team alerted veterinarians who rushed to the spot and gave necessary treatment to the cub, but it died," the release said.

It seems the cub died because of weakness as it was weak since birth, it said.

“Further details of the cause can be given after the post-mortem will be done,” said JS Chouhan, Chief Conservator of Forest Department, adding that the decision to move the cheetahs to some other place can be taken by the Central government. 

Cheetah Jwala, earlier known as Siyaya, was brought from Namibia to KNP in Sheopur district in September 2022. She gave birth to four cubs in the last week of March this year.

Cheetahs ,Sasha’ and ‘Uday’, who were shifted to KNP from Namibia and South Africa in separate batches along with other cheetahs, died on March 27 and April 23, respectively, while female feline ‘Daksha’ died on May 9

However, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) South Africa had said that the deaths of two cheetahs in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park are within expected mortality rates for a project of this nature.

Twenty cheetahs were brought from South Africa to MPs Kuno National Park as part of an initiative to expand the cheetah meta-population and to reintroduce cheetahs to a former range state.