CHEETAH REINTRODUCTION PROJECT - ENVIRONMENT
News: 5
more cheetahs to be released into wild at Kuno National Park before monsoon
What's in the news?
● Five
more cheetahs, three females and two males will be released from acclimatisation
camps into free-ranging conditions at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park (KNP)
before the onset of the monsoon in June.
Key takeaways:
● In
a statement, the ministry also said that Uday, the male adult South African
cheetah who was found dead at KNP, had died of cardio-pulmonary failure, and
that a detailed post-mortem examination found that it did not suffer from any
infectious disease that may affect other cheetahs.
● All
the cheetahs are fitted with satellite
collars that record their location twice a day or more depending upon the
situation.
● Monitoring teams
have been employed to follow the released cheetahs 24×7 in rotating shifts.
Cheetah:
● Cheetahs
are among the oldest of the big cat species, with its ancestors going back
about 8.5 million years.
● The
cheetah is a prominent cat family member that belongs to the subfamily Felinae and is found across Africa and
some parts of Iran.
● The
cheetah prefers grassland habitats
where it has enough space to go after its prey without any obstacles.
● It
is listed as “vulnerable” by the
World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
● Two
subspecies, the Asiatic cheetah and the Northwest African cheetah, are listed
as “critically endangered”.
Further Reference: Cheetah Reintroduction Project