At least four cheetah cubs, born just a month ago in central India's Kuno National Park, were likely killed by a leopard, officials said on Tuesday, marking the latest setback to India's ambitious Cheetah reintroduction project.
The project, which began four years ago by importing big cats from Africa, aims to restore the species that India declared extinct in 1952. Park officials reported that the partially-eaten bodies of the cubs were discovered by a monitoring team early Tuesday, confirming they were killed by another animal.
“At around 6.30am, the four cubs of female cheetah KGP12 which were born on 11 April in the wild were found dead by the monitoring team near the den site in Sheopur Territorial Division,” said Uttam Sharma, field director of Project Cheetah. The cubs were last seen alive on the evening of 11 April and were under constant observation, he told The Independent.
The corpses bore deep wounds and were partially eaten, suggesting a leopard attack. “Prima facie, the incident appears to be predation by another animal. The mother cheetah is safe and healthy,” park officials said in a statement.
Kuno National Park hosts a large population of apex predators, including leopards, wolves, hyenas, and wild dogs, which had been flagged as a major threat to the African cheetahs donated by South Africa and Namibia. Project Cheetah experienced a slow start, with several animals dying within the first two years due to territorial threats, sickness, dehydration, and maggot-infestation from wet monitor collars. In total, 22 cheetahs have died since the reintroduction programme began in September 2022.
However, multiple cheetahs imported from Africa and their offspring born in India have given birth. India now has 53 cheetahs, all but three in Kuno, where officials had celebrated the birth of the cubs found dead as a “baby boom”. The previous death of a cheetah cub occurred in December, when a 20-month-old was killed after being hit by a vehicle on a nearby highway.
