Freddie and Elton kill again: Why the cheetah pair is being tracked so closely
- November 11, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Freddie and Elton kill again: Why the cheetah pair is being tracked so closely
Subject: Environment
Context-
- The two Cheetah brothers in Kuno National Park, Freddie and Elton, made their second successful hunt on Wednesday evening, once again killing a Cheetal (spotted deer), forest officials said.
Why is it important?
- India’s cheetah reintroduction project is the first time in the world that a large carnivore has been relocated from one continent to another.
- The cheetahs are exhibiting normal behaviour which shows they are adapting well and are in the best of health conditions and agility, even after the mandatory quarantine period.
- The animals are tracked in the wild using a Very High Frequency (VHF) satellite collar.
Why weren’t they hunting all this while?
- After the cheetahs reached India they were kept in quarantine bomas (enclosures) to prevent them from catching infections from other animals and were fed buffalo meat.
- They are being released into a larger enclosure in a staggered manner, with Freddie and Elton being the first.
- The next cheetah to be released in the large enclosure will be another male, Obaan.
- The larger enclosures consist of nine interlinked compartments spread across a 5-sqkm area.
- The separate compartments have been created so that a particular animal can easily be removed should the need arise.
- The other five cheetahs are Sasha, Siyaya, Savannah, Tbilisi and Asha.
- The male cheetahs are aged between 4.5 years and 5.5 years while the five female cheetahs are aged two to five years.
What next-
- After adapting to the larger enclosures, they will be released into the 748-sqkm Kuno National Park.
- The enclosure has a high prey base but it does not have other large predators.
- Its 11.7-km peripheral fence has an electric charge to keep other animals away.
- Cheetahs are known to coexist with leopards in Namibia.
- In the national park, they will have to survive with 150-odd leopards.
Why Kuno was chosen for the cheetahs-
- The last of these animals were killed in 1947.
- Cheetahs were declared extinct in India in 1952.
- Six sites, which had been assessed in 2010 for the translocation of the Asiatic Lion, were re-assessed in 2020.
- Mukundara Hills Tiger Reserve and Shergarh Wildlife Sanctuary, both in Rajasthan, and Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary, Kuno National Park, Madhav National Park and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh.
- Kuno was found ready to receive the cheetah immediately as it had been prepared for the Asiatic Lion.
- Both animals share the same habitat – semi-arid grasslands and forests that stretch across Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Will any other site in India get the cheetahs?
- Madhya Pradesh forest officials are making efforts to accommodate more in the Nauradehi forest sanctuary in Sagar and Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary in Mandsaur.