Project: An African cheetah. India wants to reintroduce the cats after being declared extinct in the 1950s. Photo: Noah Seelam/Getty Images
A second cheetah from South Africa has died — this time in a “violent mating interaction” — in Kuno National Park in India in the country’s controversial Project Cheetah.
The adult female cheetah, who had been named Daksha by Indian citizens in a contest, was found “fatally injured” by the monitoring team in her fenced enclosure on Tuesday at 10.45am, Indian authorities said this week.
She was part of a batch of 12 cheetahs — seven males and five females — from South Africa that were airlifted to India in February. They joined eight cheetahs that were moved to the unfenced Kuno National Park in Madya Pradesh state in September from Namibia.
“Treatment was done by the veterinarians but the cheetah died tragically at noon the same day,” read the statement. “Prima facie, the wounds found on the female cheetah, Daksha, seem to have been caused by a violent interaction with the male, during the courtship/mating attempt.
“Such violent behaviours by male coalition cheetahs towards female cheetahs during mating are common. In such a situation, the chances of intervention by the monitoring team are almost non-existent and practically impossible.”
In January, South Africa and India signed a memorandum of understanding on “cooperation on the reintroduction of cheetah”, agreeing to send a dozen Southern African cheetahs to the unfenced Kuno National Park, 70 years after its Asiatic cheetah was declared extinct. The aim is to establish a “viable and secure” cheetah population in India.
Last month, Uday, one of the 12 cheetahs flown from South Africa to India in February, died, probably “of terminal cardio-pulmonary failure” but the exact cause of death is being investigated, according to authorities.
Sasha, a six-year-old female from Namibia, died in March of kidney failure.
Large carnivore reintroductions are “extremely complex and inherently risky operations”, said Vincent van der Merwe, the manager of the Cheetah Metapopulation Project, which is coordinated by the Metapopulation Initiative. It works to maintain the genetic and demographic integrity of the cheetah metapopulation and to increase the resident range of wild cheetahs in their historical distribution range.
He said the deaths of the two cheetahs from South Africa are “well within expected mortality rates”
for a project of this nature.
Van der Merwe added that the project was in a critical phase because the cheetahs are being released into larger areas where there is less control over their day-to-day wellbeing.
“The risks for injury and mortality will be increasing,” he said, adding that these risks are factored into the reintroduction plan.
Daksha had a violent interaction with Vayu and Agni, two adult males from Phinda Game Reserve. Daksha also originated from Phinda.
“Regrettably Daksha lost her life in this incident,” said Van der Merwe. “It is not unusual for male cheetahs to exhibit aggressive behaviour towards each other, as well as towards females.”
He said cheetahs killing other cheetahs accounts for 8% of cheetah mortality in the Southern African metapopulation.
But Gus Mills, of the school of biology and environmental sciences at the University of Mpumalanga, who has studied free-ranging cheetahs for more than 40 years, said although male cheetahs do harass female cheetahs in the wild, they rarely meet up with each other.
“Certainly if they do come into contact, it’s probably enhanced by the fact that the females are in estrus and the males have picked that up,” he said. “But even just generally, they’re moving around, they encounter each other, and the males often harass the females. I think what they’re trying to establish is if a female is in estrus or not.”
Mills said these interactions can continue for a lengthy period but the males don’t usually injure the female and an injury so severe that it would lead to the death of a female is even more rare.
“And I think, in a captive situation … if you put a male and a female together, that is not a good idea and I’m sure that exacerbated the whole situation,” he said. “There was very little way they could have avoided contact.”
Van der Merwe said all the South African cheetahs are in larger enclosures and are monitored twice a day. Because they are wild cheetahs, their behaviour, movements and body condition are evaluated from a distance, “limiting the ability of teams on the ground to gain precise knowledge of their health status”, he said.
Three South African cheetahs will be released into free-ranging conditions, while the remaining seven will be held back in the large enclosures for further habituation.
“Kuno [National Park] is an unfenced protected area that supports a high density of competing predators including leopards, wolves, sloth bears, and striped hyenas. We anticipate that, as observed with cheetah reintroductions in Africa, approximately half of the founder population may be lost within the first-year post-release.”
Van der Merwe added that many of the released cheetahs will probably escape the boundaries of Kuno and may have to go through short-term stress during the recapture process. “Once the cheetahs have established home ranges, the situation will stabilise.”
He said that from 1965 to 1996, 279 Namibian cheetahs were introduced into 10 South African protected areas to establish a cheetah metapopulation in South Africa. Eight of these introductions failed, with more than 200 wild cheetahs dying. “Regardless, important lessons were learnt, operating procedures adapted, and today South Africa supports the only growing, wild cheetah population worldwide.”
Since 2012, South Africa’s metapopulation has grown from 217 individuals on 41 reserves to 524 individuals on 73 reserves. South Africa has since made 70 wild cheetahs available for range expansion efforts in Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, and India.
“We are working closely with Indian authorities to ensure a smoother reintroduction process and to prevent the level of mortality observed during the early South African reintroduction experience,” Van der Merwe said, adding that some cheetah mortalities are to be expected. “Additional lessons” will be learnt in the process.
“Although outcome predictions are considered, conservation science depends on real-time data. Over time, our conservation strategy will adapt to the evolving situation on the ground and slowly we will repopulate the protected areas of India with a historically occurring predator, to the benefit of the species globally.”
Last month, German scientists said in a study that the introduction of African cheetahs to India was planned without considering the spatial ecology of the big cats, and that the released felines may come into conflict with livestock farmers.
Van der Merwe noted that cheetahs are responsible for far fewer human-wildlife conflict incidents than tigers, leopards and elephants.
On Monday, India’s ministry of environment, forest and climate change said the translocation of 20 cheetahs to Kuno is the initial phase of a project to re-establish the species in its historical range in India.
“The project hopes to benefit global cheetah conservation efforts by providing up to 100 000km2 of habitat in legally protected areas and an additional 600 000km2 of habitable landscape for the species. Cheetahs fulfil a unique ecological role within the carnivore hierarchy and their restoration is expected to enhance ecosystem health in India.”
Mills said the “entire project is a total mess as predicted. They haven’t prepared the areas properly before they brought the cheetahs, now they’ve got the cheetahs and they feel they have to release them … You can’t expect that by putting large carnivores into degraded habitats, that you will restore the grassland.”