Ganesh Kendale
BHOPAL: Cheetah Nirvah is turning out to be prime suspect in killing and mutilation of her cubs inside an enclosure at Kuno National Park, sources told TOI on Friday.
If so, it would be an extremely rare event as cheetahs are not known to kill their young, unlike other cats. Experts are trying to understand if Nirvah’s actions were driven by stress, confusion, or other factors.
News of the cubs’ birth got out on Monday. On Thursday morning, forest officials tracking Nirvah and its cubs were concerned to see it move away from the den. A monitoring team, led by veterinarians, rushed to the spot and found the decapitated carcass of one cub and another ripped to pieces.
After a thorough search of the enclosure, no evidence of external interference, such as a fence breach or intrusion by other animals, was found, said an official. This led authorities to suspect that Nirvah may have been involved in the cubs’ deaths.
Leading cheetah expert Laurie Marker cautioned against calling it ‘cannibalism’. “New breeding females often don’t know what to do with their first litter and death can occur. They don’t know that they are their cubs,” Laurie told TOI.
