Profile
Settings
Refer your friends
Sign out
Why in the News?
Recently, eight cheetahs were relocated from Namibia in Africa to India’s Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya PradesImage Source: Indian Express
Key Points:
The name cheetah is believed to have originated from Sanskrit word Chitrak, which means ‘the spotted one’.
In India, the native cheetah species was the Asiatic cheetah.
It was officially declared extinct by the Indian government in 1952.
Currently, only Iran has Asiatic cheetahs in the wild.
Majority of the Cheetah around the world are African cheetahs.
7 big cats of the world: 1) tiger, 2) lion, 3) leopard and 4) snow leopard 5) Cheetah 6) Jaguar 7) Cougar.
Five of them – Tiger, Lion, Leopard, snow leopard and Cheetah are now found in India.
The benefit of translocation of Cheetah:
Act as a flagship species to revive grassland forests and their biome and habitat.
Global conservation, in case the African cheetah population is wiped out by some pandemic.
Causes of extinction of cheetahs in India:
Its reduced levels of genetic heterogeneity due to a historical genetic bottleneck resulting in low fertility and high infant mortality in the wild.
Its inability to breed in captivity.
Sport hunting and bounty killings.
