Nine Botswana Cheetahs To Be Fed Meat For First Time; Activities Of The Cheetahs Monitored Through High-Mast Cameras

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): No meat has been served so far to nine cheetahs translocated to Kuno National Park from Botswana. The cheetahs, all kept in eight quarantine enclosures, will be given meat on Monday for the first time.

Kuno officials said the carnivores do not feed on meat regularly and eat only after a gap of three to four days. For this reason, meat was not served to the nine Botswanan cheetahs after their arrival, officials said. Not giving meat immediately after arrival is a standard protocol. All nine cheetahs were kept without food and will now be given meat on Monday, an officer at Kuno said.

Meanwhile, the activities of the Botswanan cheetahs are being monitored through high-mast cameras. The cameras, installed on high-rise poles, have the capacity to cover a radius of 1.5 km to 2 km, the official said.

An expert team visits the enclosures twice a day to check the health of the cheetahs. The Botswanan cheetahs are in quarantine, which limits access to the enclosures.

Once the quarantine period ends after a month, a decision will be taken on whether to shift them to Mandsaur’s Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary or Sagar s Nauradehi Sanctuary. A few are likely to remain at Kuno to improve the gene pool of the existing population of cheetahs.

When the Kuno project was launched, cheetahs were brought from Namibia and South Africa. If the Botswanan cheetahs are allowed to mingle with them, it will help improve the gene pool.