JUDAH’S LIMERICK
All is not well with the cheetahs from Africa released in KNP with much fanfare
I don’t quite know what it is that’s bothering them in this country, is it the air?
No,it could not also have had anything to do with our beloved PM
though it was he who grandly opened the cage and welcomed them
NEWS STORY
Second cheetah death at Kuno in less than a month; six-yr-old Uday had been translocated from South Africa
Notably, this is the second such incident at Kuno National Park in almost a month. Earlier, Namibian cheetah Sasha died due to a kidney ailment on March 27.
New Delhi | Updated: April 24, 2023 12:14 IST
Tragedy strikes as translocated cheetah passes away at Kuno National Park. (File)
The Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh lost yet another Cheetah when a six-year-old male feline, translocated from South Africa in February, died on Sunday, officials said. The reasons for its death are still unknown, said officials.
The cheetah, who was recently named Uday following a mass competition organised by the government platform mygov.in, had been faring well till Saturday. It suddenly took ill on Sunday, said officials of the Madhya Pradesh forest department.
This is the second cheetah death in Kuno after the translocation of the big cats from Namibia and South Africa to India that started in September last year. On March 27, a Namibian cheetah named Sasha had died of kidney complications.
Uday’s post-mortem will be carried out at the park on Monday to ascertain the cause of death, said the officials.
Unlike Sasha, whose kidney ailment was known to forest officials, Uday’s death took everyone by surprise. Sasha was believed to have contracted the kidney ailment during her captivity in Namibia and had been unwell since she arrived at Kuno.
She was never let out of the quarantine Boma, where all the cheetahs had been kept for a month after their arrival. Eight Namibian Cheetahs were brought and released in Kuno in September last year. Another batch of 12 South African cheetahs were brought by the Indian government on February 18 this year.
“We run daily checks on the cheetahs. When our team went for the inspection yesterday (Saturday), all the cheetahs were in perfect health and were doing well. There were no visible problems. This morning, when a team went out to check on them, Uday seemed low on energy, looked unwell and was walking with his head down,” said Madhya Pradesh Chief Wildlife Warden J S Chauhan.
The South African cheetahs had completed their quarantine period at Kuno and had been released into the larger 6 sqkm enclosure built at the park just a week ago.
“The (inspection) team immediately informed the park director and a team of vets was sent out to the enclosure. Uday was tranquilised and brought back to the quarantine for examination. He was being administered medication and saline, and even as the treatment was underway, he passed away at 4 pm today (Sunday). The team did not even get time to assess what happened exactly. Tomorrow (Monday) morning, a veterinarian from Veterinarian University at Jabalpur, and another from Bhopal, will go to Kuno to carry out the post-mortem. Only then will we be able to ascertain what happened,’’ said Chauhan.
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