70-Year Extinction Ends as Namibia Cheetahs Give Birth to Four Cubs in India

As a result of the birth of four cubs by the adult big cats that were brought in from Namibia, the 70-year extinction of cheetahs in India has come to an end.

The good news was announced by India's environment minister, who described it as a "momentous event."

Cheetas from Namibia

The nation has been working to reintroduce big cats for years, and last year eight cheetahs from Namibia were brought over as part of the strategy.

Last month, 12 additional cheetahs were transported from South Africa to India.

One of the females that traveled from Namibia last September gave birth to the four cubs in the wildlife sanctuary of Kuno National Park.

Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav expressed his delight about the news when he shared it on Twitter.

Yadav commended the entire Project Cheetah team for their tenacious efforts to bring cheetahs back to India and also for their efforts to right a historical ecological wrong.

The "wonderful news" was also welcomed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to the Press Trust of India, the cubs were thought to have been born about five days earlier but weren't discovered until Wednesday by officials.

Park Officials said hat, the mother, Siyaya, and the cubs are all right and healthy.

But just two days before the announcement of the new cubs, one of the eight Namibian cheetahs at Kuno National Park passed away from kidney failure.

A large carnivore had never been relocated from one continent to a different one and reintroduced in the wild until the eight were brought to India last year.

70-Year Extinction of Cheetahs in India

After years of declining numbers due to hunting, habitat loss, and a lack of available prey, cheetahs-the fastest land animal in the world-became officially extinct by 1952 in India in 1952.

Currently, South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana are home to the overwhelming bulk of the 7,000 cheetahs that exist worldwide.

Only 50 of the critically endangered Asiatic cheetahs are thought to remain, and they are currently only found in Iran.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, the cheetah is classified as "vulnerable" throughout the world.

To catch prey, it can sprint across grasslands at speeds of up to 70 mph, BBC News reported.

Also Read: Tasmanian Tiger Revival from Extinction: Now Possible -Study 

Cheetahs in Captivity

For centuries, cheetahs have been domesticated, used for hunting, and housed in zoos throughout Asia, Europe, and Africa.

They have, however, never really flourished in captivity.

139 wild-caught cheetahs were on display at 47 zoos between 1829 and 1952.

With 115 recorded deaths and no recorded births during this time, the majority of these animals lived for less than a year.

Cheetahs continue to experience a variety of unusual illnesses that are infrequently reported in other captive cats, despite improvements in husbandry practices in zoos and other facilities around the world that house captive animals.

These include gastritis, various kidney disorders, abnormalities of the liver, heart muscle fibrosis, and several unclear neurological conditions.

Over 90% of cheetahs kept in captivity in both North and South Africa had gastritis at the time of death, according to postmortem findings.

Similar to this, over two-thirds of captive cheetahs had kidney disease.

Contrarily, wild, free-ranging cheetahs are much less likely to contract these diseases, the Smithsonian Magazine reported.

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