Cheetah cub from India's first litter in 70 years dies of dehydration

Three more of the big cats have died at Kuno National Park

Four cubs were born to one of the cheetahs taken to India from southern Africa. Photo: Ministry for Environment, Forest & Climate Change

One of the first cheetah cubs to be born in India in more than 70 years has died of dehydration and weakness.

The cub, born in Kuno National Park, was the offspring of a cheetah named Jwala that was delivered to the park from Namibia as part of a conservation project to reintroduce the species to the subcontinent.

The cub was among a litter of four born in the sprawling national park in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh more than seven decades after the animals became locally extinct.

Eight cheetahs – five female and three male ― were moved from Otjiwarongo in Namibia to the park in September last year.

Another 12 cheetahs were moved from Gauteng in South Africa in February as part of the project.

Park officials said on Tuesday that the cub died due to “immense weakness”.

“When the monitoring team visited the park, the cub looked weak, so the team called veterinary doctors and took the cub to the hospital but after five to 10 minutes, the cub died,” said JS Chouhan, chief conservator of forests in Madhya Pradesh.

“The cause of death is due to immense weakness. Further details of the cause can be given after the post-mortem will be done.”

Experts said that the death of the cub was “within expected mortality rates”.

“Cub mortality is particularly high for wild cheetahs. For this reason, cheetahs have evolved to give birth to large litters compared to other wild cats. This enables them to compensate for the high cub mortality rate,” said Vincent Van Der Merwe, the head of the South Africa meta-population project.

Weaker cheetah cubs typically survive less often than stronger siblings in the same litter.

The cub's death came just two weeks after a female cheetah called Daksha was fatally injured in a fight after it was enclosed with two males in a breeding attempt.

Two more animals, Sasha and Uday, died in March and April due to poor health.

The project has been criticised by wildlife experts and enthusiasts who said cheetahs were vulnerable animals and that the project was unsustainable and aimed only to increase tourist revenue.

Ullas Karanth, a leading conservation zoologist and emeritus director for the non-profit Centre for Wildlife Studies, said that once the cheetahs were released into the forest, they would start “perishing” in conflict with local animals.

“The Kuno effort is a vanity project for PR purposes. Cheetahs in India are a valid project but the present project cannot achieve that goal for both ecological and social reasons,” Mr Karanth told The National.