India rejects cheetahs that cannot hunt, are bred in captivity

India has rejected some of the cheetahs that were captured and quarantined in Namibia for their translocation to Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, because they turned out to be captive-bred and couldn’t hunt.

- P.Naveen

Bhopal: Having timid cheetahs in a forest teeming with leopards would be disastrous. This will add to the delays in the project.

During his recent visit to Namibia, Dr Yadvendradev Vikramsinh Jhala, dean of the Wildlife Institute of India, and one of the experts tasked with this conservation initiative, found that three of the eight cheetahs kept in quarantine for translocation “were not able to catch wild prey”. Those three are going to be replaced by the wild-caught cheetahs.