Four cheetah cubs found dead in Kuno National Park one month after their birth

Four cheetah cubs who were born in the wild at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park were found dead on Tuesday, the Hindustan Times reported. Officials said that they appeared to have been killed by a leopard.

The cubs, born on April 11 in the Sheopur territorial division adjoining Kuno, were the country’s first wild-born cheetahs since the animals were reintroduced in the country in September 2022. Their half-eaten bodies were found in the forest near their den on Tuesday.

“The cubs were constantly monitored,” Kuno National Park Field Director Uttam Sharma was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times. “On May 11, they were alive and healthy. But on Tuesday morning, they were found dead with deep wounds and partially eaten bodies. Prima facie, a leopard attacked them.”

The bodies have been sent for a post-mortem examination so that the cause of their death can be ascertained, added the field director.

The mother of the cubs, KGP-12, was found safe and roaming nearby, the newspaper quoted an unidentified official as saying.

The birth of the cubs marked the first time that an Indian-born cheetah raised in the wild had given birth outside of an enclosure.

In September 2022, cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa were reintroduced to India seven decades after the species was declared extinct in the country.

Since then, 33 cubs have been born in India, while 22 cheetahs have died, including the ones believed to have been killed by a leopard on Tuesday.

There are now a total of 53 cheetahs in India, The Indian Express quoted an unidentified official as saying. Out of these, 50 are in the Kuno National Park and three are in the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary.

The cheetah had been officially declared extinct by the Indian government in 1952. Before their reintroduction, the wild cats were last recorded in the country in 1948, when three cheetahs were shot in the sal forests in Chhattisgarh’s Koriya District.

Edited by Sneha.