South African Male Cheetah “ Tejas”, aged around 4 years, died due to the fatal wound received on the upper area of the neck in Kuno National Park (Sheopur) on Tuesday. Tejas and a female Namibian Cheetah were kept inside the same enclosure. It’s being suspected that both of them entered into the infighting and the female Cheetah inflicted the fatal wounds on the neck of Tejas. Investigation is underway to find out the actual reason behind the death of Tejas.
This is the fourth death of an adult Cheetah in Kuno. Out of 20 adult cheetahs translocated to Kuno from Namibia and South Africa, now the number of adult cheetahs has been reduced to sixteen.
It was around 11 am on Tuesday that the monitoring team saw the wound on the upper neck area of Tejas. The monitoring team immediately informed the wild life experts and veterinary doctors posted at Palpur headquarters. The wildlife experts immediately rushed to the spot and examined Tejas. They saw the wounds sustained by Tejas on the neck were serious.
After seeking permission to tranqualise Tejas, the veterinary teams reached the spot. At 2 pm, Tejas was found dead. After post mortem, the actual reason for Tejas death could be known. It’s being believed that both Tejas and a female Namibian cheetah might have entered into the fighting during the night hours of Monday.
When contacted, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Wild Life, JS Chouhan said to Free Press that a female namibian Cheetah is suspected to be behind the death of Tejas. The autopsy of Tejas will be performed on Wednesday.
Notably, this is the second incident of infighting among the Cheetahs. Earlier it was Agni and Vayu who had fought a pitched battle with Gaurav and Saurya some days back. In this incident, Agni was injured badly and was shifted along with Vayu for treatment.
