Twelve first felines will be transferred by plane next month, who will join eight other imports from Namibia in September.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
South Africa announced, Thursday, January 26, having concluded an agreement to transfer more than 100 cheetahs to India as part of an ambitious project to reintroduce the spotted felines in this country.
The South African Ministry of the Environment announced that a first group of twelve cheetahs are sent to India by plane next month, who will join eight other imports from Namibia last September. “The plan is to transfer twelve others each year in the next eight to ten years”, to help perpetuate a “population of viable and security cheetahs,” said the ministry in a statement.
India formerly housed Asian cheetahs, a declared subspecies extinct in 1952, for lack of conducive places of life and because they were hunted by hunters for their spotted skins. The efforts to reintroduce the fastest animal, the fastest terrestrial animal in 2020 when the Supreme Court of India gave the green light to the importation of African cheetahs, a different subspecies, “in a place carefully chosen “and on an experimental basis.
The negotiations of this agreement with South Africa were long and initially foresee the arrival last August of the first cheetahs, who have been waiting for in forty. “Guépards are still going well,” said Adrian Tordififfe, a veterinarian specializing in wild animals at the University of Pretoria, involved in the project.
According to the authorities, the previous transfer of cheetahs, from Namibia to India, was the very first relocation of cheetahs from one continent to another. These cheetahs were released in Kuno National Park, 320 km south of New Delhi, renowned for its abundant prey and meadows.