Nine Botswana Cheetahs Clear Quarantine, Making Kuno A Unique Home To Big Cats From Three African Nations
A senior forest officer said that all the nine cheetahs, including six females, brought from Botswana to the KNP on February 28, have cleared all the required health protocols in quarantine, indicating that they have started acclimatizing to the Kuno habitation.
Bhopal: Nine Botswana cheetahs have successfully cleared all required health protocols after 24 days in quarantine in the Kuno National Park of Madhya Pradesh, earning the wildlife sanctuary the unique position of hosting the big cat species of three African nations.
A senior forest officer said that all the nine cheetahs, including six females, brought from Botswana to the KNP on February 28, have cleared all the required health protocols in quarantine, indicating that they have started acclimatizing to the Kuno habitation.
“Kuno now hosts cheetahs from three countries- Namibia, South Africa, and Botswana- creating a unique and diverse genetic mix, perhaps unmatched anywhere in the world”, Field Director of the KNP Uttam Kumar Sharma told this newspaper on Monday.
Narrating the challenges of making the Botswana cheetahs feel at home in Kuno, Mr. Sharma said that “For the Botswana cheetahs, this landscape is new- new sights, new smell, and a different rhythm of the wild”.
Yet, every effort has been made to ensure that their first experience in Kuno is safe, calm and stress-free, he added.
Behind the physical and psychological settlement of the Botswana cheetahs after their arrival in the KNP, lay a great deal of planning, rehearsals and execution.
Mr. Sharma recounted that preparations at Kuno had begun long before the cheetahs arrived.
A new soft release boma (enclosure) of about 265 hectares was added to the existing 700 hectares of enclosure in the natural forest.
The quarantine bomas in Kuno were upgraded- cleaned, strengthened, and equipped with adequate water and shade, especially keeping in mind the approaching summer, he recalled.
Kuno is the only wildlife sanctuary where cheetahs of three countries have made their home, promising to create a unique and most diverse genetic mix in the world, experts say.
With the arrival of nine Botswana cheetahs, India now has a cheetah population of 53, including 33 thriving cubs.
Gandhi Sagar wildlife sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh has been made the second home of cheetahs with the release of three cheetahs, including a female one, in it from Kuno.
India’s Project Cheetah took off when eight cheetahs from Namibia were shifted to Kuno in September 2022.
Six months later, 12 cheetahs from South Africa were translocated to Kuno under the project.