Namibian cheetah Siyaya gives birth to four cubs, first cheetahs to be born on Indian soil in over 70 years

Marking a historic moment for India’s cheetah reintroduction project, one of the translocated Namibian cheetahs, Siyaya, gave birth to four cubs at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park over the last two days, said forest officials, who discovered the cubs Wednesday morning. These are the first cheetah cubs born in India in over 70 years as cheetahs had gone extinct in the country in 1952.

Tweeting a picture of the cubs, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said, “Congratulations India! A momentous event in our wildlife conservation history during Amrit Kaal!”

The environment minister told The Indian Express, “Today is a momentous day for the conservation project. All the cheetahs are doing exceptionally well. The South African cheetahs, introduced in February, have also completed a month in quarantine. We feel that within a year, we will be able to release all the African cheetahs into the wild. Two Namibian female cheetahs are still within the larger enclosure, and they will be released with the South African cheetah. The idea is that if they mate, then the genetic diversity between the two cheetahs will ensure a higher survival rate.”

The birth of the cubs followed the death of one of the eight Namibian cheetahs released into the national park in September 2022. The cheetah named Sasha died Monday (March 26) Sasha after ailing from a severe kidney infection which she had contracted while in captivity in Namibia.

“This (the birth of four cubs) is great news in the world’s conservation history. We believe that Siyaya would’ve delivered on March 25 or 26. We had anticipated the birth because of the pattern of Siyaya’s movements. Her movement had been very restricted for a while. And she would always come back to the same spot after roaming around. So we anticipated her giving birth. She would have mated with either Elton or Freddy – two male Namibian Cheetahs; we cannot say who. In the wild, it doesn’t matter,” said S P Yadav, member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, who is in charge of the cheetah project.

Yadav added that a typical gestation period for a cheetah is 60-90 days. Siyaya gave birth to her cubs in the 6 square kilometre enclosure where the cheetahs had been released after the quarantine period in the quarantine enclosures.

Freddy and Elton, however, have been released into the wild along with Obaan and Asha, who forest officials believed to have been mating, and were the first two cheetahs to have been released into the wild in the Kuno National Park. Obaan, a male, is the biggest of all the Namibian cheetahs and also the most skilful hunter, according to officials.

“Siyaya will be kept in the enclosure along with her cubs, and once her cubs are older and stronger, they will be released into the wild with their mother,” said Yadav, adding that the South African cheetahs, who arrived at the Kuno National Park on February 18, were also doing exceptionally well.

This story is first published in Indian Express

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