Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Eight-month-old lone surviving cheetah cub, being hand raised after its mother ‘Siyaya’ was rejected, is doing fine at Kuno National Park. The lone surviving cub is the first hope of the Cheetah project.
The forest officials of Kuno are keeping their fingers crossed over the possibility of its release into the open jungle- though it will not be any sooner.
One of the forest officers told Free Press that normally the offspring of a feline family remain with their mother for around two years and after reaching this age they start learning hunting techniques. It could be only after the cub turns two, any decision regarding its release into the wild would be taken, said the official.
When asked about the distant possibility of the Cheetah cub being released into the wild, Kuno National Park field director Uttam Kumar Sharma told Free Press that until the cub is two- year-old, nothing could be said.
There is no chance to release the cub into the wild until it attains the age of two, the official said. Normally, it is after two years that the cub starts learning the hunting skills and it is a tricky issue. After the cub attains the age of two, its hunting skill will be checked and only then any decision could be taken about its release, he added.
Cubs learn the hunting skills with their mother and in absence of mother’s guidance, the hunting skills of the cubs remain questionable, said a wildlife expert.
Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve field director Prakash Kumar Verma said, “ When I was posted in Kuno, I had proposed to teach the hunting skill to cheetah cub by keeping rabbit or hen inside its closure,” In March this year, Siyaya had given birth to four cubs inside the enclosure, three of them died due to extreme heat.
The Kuno authorities rescued Siyaya and its lone surviving cub- both had dehydration-like symptoms. After treatment when Kuno officials tried to reunite the cub with Siyaya, the latter rejected it. Many attempts were made to reunite the cub with its mother but the latter tried to kill the cub. It was then decided to hand raise the cub.
