MP: Cheetah cubs died due to extreme weather conditions, fourth cub responding to treatment, says forest official

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) [India], May 25 : Madhya Pradesh Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) JS Chouhan on Thursday said that the two cubs born to Jwala, a cheetah brought to India from Namibia, died due to "extreme weather conditions and dehydration" while the fourth cub is "completely healthy" at present.

The cubs were among the four born on March 24 this year, inside the National Park to Cheetah Jwala, who was among the set of eight cheetahs relocated to India from Namibia last year. Jwala had given birth to four cubs on March 24 this year.

Speaking to ANI, the MP Principal Chief Conservator of Forest said, "This incident happened on May 23 itself. The day the first cheetah cub died in the morning, on the same day itself the other two cubs died. After the death of the first cub, our monitoring team and the veterinary team kept the mother cheetah and its remaining cubs under observation. But by the afternoon, two more cubs were weak and their movements were also restricted, after which the team tried to treat them but they died during treatment."

"After that, the team rescued the fourth cheetah cub and brought it to the hospital. Its condition was also not very good. But after treatment, it is looking much better though the cub is underweight and a bit weak," he added.

"The day this incident occurred was an exceptionally hot day. It was 47 degree Celsius on May 23 in that area and dehydration is expected in this condition," he added.

When asked about the death of the cubs, he said that he came to know about the death late at night on May 23 and the next morning, he reached the park to check on the cubs and the mother. "Experts tried a lot to save the cubs," Chouhan said.

"Now, one cub out of the four has survived and it is completely healthy. Ever since it was given saline and milk to drink, since then it is fully active," the PCCF added.

When asked about the survival issues of the cheetah cubs, Chouhan said, "I will not say that there are shortcomings, it is not like that at all. The female cheetah who gave birth to these four cubs was herself born in captivity and grew up in captivity. Apart from this, she become a mother for the first time and it is also possible that milk was not produced properly within her, due to which the cubs suffered from malnutrition. These cubs were eight weeks old. Their weight should be around 2 to 2.5 kg but their weight is around 1.5 kg."

Notably, in the past few months, three cheetahs died at the Kuno National Park.

PCCF Chouhan said, "The first female cheetah that died was the one who had kidney problems even before she was brought here. The second cheetah had a cardiopulmonary failure. Its histopathological examination is still awaited. We wanted to know what caused the heart and lung failure. The third casualty, in which one female cheetah died was due to a violent interaction with a male cheetah."