In a first, cheetah dies after ‘clash with leopard’ at Kuno

It was one of the four sub-adult cubs born to the Namibian cheetah named Jwala.

An official statement said, “She had separated from her mother over a month ago and from her siblings a few days earlier. Preliminary assessment points to a territorial clash with a leopard as the cause of death. A post-mortem examination will confirm details.”

The young cheetah was among Jwala’s litter released into the wild along with their mother on February 21, this year. Its death comes just as conservationists prepared to mark three years since the first cheetahs were reintroduced at Kuno National Park after seven decades.

Kuno’s overall cheetah population remains stable, officials said.

“Kuno now has 25 cheetahs — nine adults (six females and three males) and 16 India-born individuals. All are healthy and doing well,” the project’s field director, Uttam Sharma, said.

Kuno has a high population of leopards, estimated at 70-80, which is a concern for the safety of the cheetah population. The high leopard numbers reduce the available prey, mainly chital, for the cheetahs, creating pressure on the park’s ecosystem.

This was something that had been taken into account by wildlife officials when the Kuno action plan was drafted. Said a senior wildlife official, “Leopards and tigers also co-exist in Madhya Pradesh, and we expect the cheetah to adapt to these challenges. We had anticipated territorial fights between cheetahs and leopards. These clashes are natural in the wild, and the cheetahs have to learn to survive on their own and develop the skills that will be imparted to their cubs.”

According to the Union Environment Ministry’s latest estimate, Madhya Pradesh houses the largest population of leopards in the country, with 3,907 in the wild.

Panna Tiger Reserve and Kuno National Park exhibit “some of the highest leopard densities in India”, the report said.