In response to the cheetah deaths at KNP, the Supreme Court advised the government to put aside politics and consider moving...
Digital Desk: As reported through an announcement from the state forest department, another cheetah has died at Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park, making it the ninth one to die since March.
"One of the female cheetahs, Dhatri (Tbilisi), was discovered dead this morning." A post-mortem is being performed to determine the cause of death," according to the statement.
In Kuno, fourteen cheetahs are maintained in enclosures: seven males, six females, and a female cub. A team of Kuno wildlife vets and a Namibian expert evaluate their health regularly.
The team is closely monitoring one female cheetah who is out in the open foraging. The statement claimed that efforts are being made to return her to an enclosure for a medical evaluation.
Last month, two cheetahs died from infections in wounds created by radio collars around their necks. However, the environment ministry stated that all cheetah deaths were due to natural reasons.
Heavy rain, high heat, and humidity, according to experts participating in the cheetah recovery operation, may have caused the problems, "with the collars fitted around the cheetahs potentially causing additional complications."
Following the fatalities, all of the cheetahs, except for two females, were returned to their enclosures for investigation. The wounds were cleansed by a South African veterinarian. Fluralaner, a systemic insecticide and acaricide taken orally or topically, was given to all the cheetahs.
Twenty animals were transferred from Namibia and South Africa to the KNP in two batches, the first in September last year and the second in February this year, as part of the much-publicized Project Cheetah.
Six of these adult cheetahs have died since March for various reasons. In May, three of four kittens born to a female Namibian cheetah died from heat exhaustion. The last cub is being nurtured by hand for future wildlings.
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