Four cheetah cubs found dead in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park

Four cheetah cubs born to Kuno National Park’s female cheetah KGP12 were found dead in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district, likely killed by predation. Officials said the mother is safe and an investigation and post-mortem will determine the exact cause

Sheopur (MP): Four cheetah cubs, born a month ago, were found dead in the Kuno National Park located in Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday morning with the carcasses partially devoured, an official said.

“Around 6.30 am today, four cubs – born to female cheetah KGP12 on April 11 – were found dead with carcasses partially eaten, by the monitoring team near the den site in Sheopur territorial division,” the official said. The cubs were last observed alive on the evening of May 11, he said. The death of these cubs appears to have been caused due to predation by another animal, the official said.

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The mother cheetah is safe and healthy. Further details will be known after post-mortem examination and detailed investigation, he said.

After the death of these four cubs, there are now 53 cheetahs left in India. While the Kuno National Park is home to 50 cheetahs, including 33 Indian-born ones, three cheetahs are at the Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary in the state, according to him. All the surviving cheetahs are healthy and doing well, the official added.

Nine cheetahs — six females and three males — were brought to Kuno from Botswana in February this year. Earlier, eight cheetahs were brought to India from Namibia on September 17, 2022, while 12 arrived in Kuno from South Africa in 2023.