Four leopard cubs were found dead in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park on Tuesday, a forest official said, adding that wounds found on the carcasses indicated a tiger attack.
The cubs were born in the wild to the cheetah named KGP12 and were found dead in its den in the park in Sheopur. The forest department monitoring team discovered that the cubs, born on April 11 and celebrated as India’s first wild cheetahs, were dead.
The monitoring team found the four half-eaten bodies in the forest. Their mother, KGP12, was safe and found wandering nearby, an official said.
KGP12 is the offspring of Gamini, a cheetah born in South Africa. Her litter was the first time an Indian-born, wild-raised cheetah had been born outside its enclosure. Forest officials hailed the births as a milestone for the project’s core goals including the big cats’ survival in the wild and reproduction under natural conditions.
Read also:A leopard cub was run over on the Agra-Mumbai highway after escaping from Kuno National Park
“The cubs were being monitored 24/7 without interference. On May 11, they were alive and healthy. But on Tuesday morning, they were found dead with deep wounds and partially eroded bodies. Prima facie, they were attacked by a leopard,” KNP field director Uttam Sharma said. The bodies were sent for autopsy.
At least 14 other adult leopards have been found active in the wild, forest officials monitoring the area have discovered.
As many as 57 cubs have been born in KNP in the last three years. Of the remaining 37, only four were born in the wild, while 33 cubs were raised in a soft-release enclosure. In all, 50 leopards were counted in KNP along with three more in Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary.
