Cheetah ‘Aasha’ at Kuno National Park may be pregnant; park official denies reports

The new cheetah population in India is projected to grow after seven decades due to the pregnancy of 'Aasha,' one of four female big cats confined at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. She might be the first one to give birth in the national park.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's favorite female cheetah Aasha is displaying all of the behavioral, physical, and hormonal indicators of pregnancy. "We're excited, but we won't know for sure until the end of October," an officer said.

"If Aasha is pregnant, it will be her first litter, and because she was caught in the wild, it did happen in Namibia. If she has cubs, we need to give her privacy and quiet. No people around her. She should have a hay bale hut in her in her enclosure”, Dr Laurie Marker of the Cheetah Conservation Fund told The Times of India.

“As she came from the wild, it’s always possible she could be pregnant. And, if she is expecting, it adds another layer of complexity to the project. Here, the importance of having trained staff on the ground to help manage the cheetah comes to the light. She needs space and peace to lower her stress so that she can focus on rearing her cubs," Dr. Marker added.

However, Prakash Kumar Verma, an official of the Kuno National Park, rubbished the news.

"The news of a female cheetah being pregnant is misleading. No test has been done and no pregnancy report has been given from Namibia. I don't know how this news has spread," Verma was quoted by India Today as saying.

Cheetah cubs have a high mortality rate in protected regions such as national parks and wildlife reserves, which adds to the country's Project Cheetah challenges. This is because protected habitats are closer to major predators than non-protected regions. In protected places, cheetah cub mortality can reach 90 percent. At birth, the cubs weigh 240g to 425g and are blind and helpless.

The mother maintains her cubs in a hidden nest until they are around six to eight weeks old, then moves them from nest to nest to evade predator detection. For the next year and a half, the mother will look after her cubs.

Three male cheetahs - Freddie, Elton, and Oban - and four females - Siyaya, Sasha, Tbilisi, and Savannah - also came from Namibia on the same day.

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