Twelve cheetahs have arrived in India as part of efforts to revive the species after decades of extinction
Originally from Namibia, the feline predators were flown in on Saturday from Johannesburg in South Africa, the Indian Air Force announced. The cheetahs will next be airlifted in helicopters from the India Air Force, and be released in their final destination, the Kuno National Park, in central Madhya Pradesh state. They will join eight cheetahs relocated from Namibia in September last year.
The initiative would “expand the cheetah meta-population and reintroduce cheetahs to a former range state following their local extinction due to overhunting and loss of habitat in the last century,” the statement said. Cheetahs were declared extinct in India in 1952, it added. The twelve cheetahs are all “wild-born,” according to the statement, and familiar with their natural predators. Other big cats and eagles are known to prey on cheetahs.
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