India has wanted for decades to reintroduce extinct cheetahs from its territory. She can now come closer to this dream, thanks to the help of South Africa. Twelve South African felines were flown in over the weekend to repopulate Kun Park, south of New Delhi.
With our special correspondent at Rooiberg, Claire Bargeles
The twelve cheetahs will join eight other of their congeners, originating them from Namibia, and already arrived in the park of Kun last September. For South Africa, one of the few countries where the population of this species classified as vulnerable is growing, this is a solution to regulate its population of cheetahs, which are too numerous in certain places of the country.
It is in a veterinary reserve in the tiny town of Rooiberg, in the north of the country, that the cheetahs had been placed in quarantine in recent months. Doctor Andy Fraser must anesthetize them while preparing them for their long flight to India: “ We just threw a dart at this female… she should be asleep in 10 minutes.. »
The veterinary team still needs to carry out some health checks, under the supervision of Adrian Tordiffe, professor at the University of Pretoria: “ Her temperature is 38.6°… it’s a normal constant, we can say that she is doing well. »
South African experts are already moving cheetahs from reserve to reserve, to avoid overpopulation and promote the mixing of their genes. According to Adrian Tordiffe, this partnership with India is therefore a win-win: ” We have no new reserves that could accommodate these new cheetahs. And so, if this continued, we would find ourselves having to put some of them on contraceptives, in the reserves, to control their number. And to me, that would be tragic, given that their global population is declining. »
Other specialists nevertheless criticize the cost and the vanity of the operation, but for Vincent van der Merwe, in charge of the project, it is by doing that we learn: “ There are a lot of unknowns and it’s a risky operation, but we will do our best and, over time, we can learn and improve our strategy, so that in the end it will be a victory. »
According to the agreement signed by the two countries, South Africa should transfer twelve animals per year, over the next eight to ten years, or a hundred in all.
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