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Rare Cheetah Coalition Forms in India's Kuno National Park
Confirmed
In Short: Two unrelated male cheetahs have formed an unusual coalition, sharing kills and territory.
Wildlife officials at Kuno National Park are celebrating the formation of a rare cheetah coalition, four years after the park's ambitious cheetah reintroduction project began.
According to Uttam Kumar Sharma, director of Kuno National Park, this phenomenon is very rare. 'Male cheetahs do form coalitions, but generally, when they grow older, they become less accepting of another unrelated male,' he explained.
The coalition, consisting of two male cheetahs with an age difference of six to seven months, began forming naturally without any deliberate pairing attempts. 'These were no longer simply two cheetahs tolerating each other. They were beginning to behave like a team. A coalition was taking shape,' noted a wildlife official.
The cheetahs share kills without aggression and watch each other's back, establishing their territory together. This development is significant for the cheetah project's progress.
Smithsonian scientists, working from their 3,200-acre facility in Front Royal, Virginia, and field research stations worldwide, have been studying cheetahs and other rare species to protect them from extinction and restore ecosystems.
What's confirmed
- Wildlife officials at Kuno National Park are celebrating the formation of a rare cheetah coalition, four years after the park's ambitious cheetah reintroduction project began.
- According to Uttam Kumar Sharma, director of Kuno National Park, this phenomenon is very rare. 'Male cheetahs do form coalitions, but generally, when they grow older, they become less accepting of another unrelated male,' he explained.
- The coalition, consisting of two male cheetahs with an age difference of six to seven months, began forming naturally without any deliberate pairing attempts. 'These were no longer simply two cheetahs tolerating each other. They were beginning to behave like a team. A coalition was taking shape,' noted a wildlife official.
- The cheetahs share kills without aggression and watch each other's back, establishing their territory together. This development is significant for the cheetah project's progress.
- Smithsonian scientists, working from their 3,200-acre facility in Front Royal, Virginia, and field research stations worldwide, have been studying cheetahs and other rare species to protect them from extinction and restore ecosystems.
What's still developing
- At Kuno, KNG23 was born in March this year to a cheetah named Nirva.
- Upon his return, he urged Smithsonian leadership to focus on preserving living animals found in the United States, and that led to the establishment of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in 1889.
- By 1965, the Zoo had launched a research center dedicated to studying animal reproduction, behavior and ecology within the park.
- See the new Asian elephant calf Linh Mai at Smithsonian's National Zoo live on camera.
- Make a donation to the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute today!
- In addition to conducting research, SCBI breeds more than 20 rare and threatened animal species, including those that were once extinct in the wild, such as black-footed ferrets, Przewalski’s horses, Guam kingfishers, and scimitar-horned oryx.
- Reed, former director of the National Zoological Park, holding a maned wolf pup.