Cheetah Reintroduction
Context
A modified passenger B-747 Jumbo Jet is to take off from Namibia for Jaipur to transport eight Namibian wild cheetahs, five females and three males, the founders of a new population in Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh.
About Kuno National Park
- Established in 1981 as a wildlife sanctuary in the Sheopur and Morena districts.
- In 2018, it was given the status of a national park. It is part of the Khathiar-Gir dry deciduous forests ecoregion.
- Area of 344.686 km2
- Fauna: Indian leopard, jungle cat, sloth bear, dhole, Indian wolf, golden jackal, striped hyena, and Bengal fox, chital, Sambar deer, nilgai, four-horned antelope, chinkara, blackbuck and wild boar.
About IUCN guidelines
- Genetic diversity: Absence of the same can lead to inbreeding depression in the new population.
- Habitat and prey base: Physical security, enough space, and ample food so that colonies of reintroduced animals become large enough as quickly as possible to withstand fluctuations in both the environment and population size.
- Landscape viability: animals will remain susceptible to demographic and environmental events in a landscape
- Curbing the cats’ homing instincts: risks from losing the released animal from the target site and human-animal conflict
