What happened at Kuno National Park is ecstatic just not for India's Project Cheetah but also for the Wildlife officials in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National park about the birth of seven cheetah cubs in January this year.

Four cubs were born to the Namibian Cheetah Jwala and three to Asha. The seven newborns, and another 10-month-old female born to Jwala, are the future of Project Cheetah, an ambitious venture to re-introduce Cheetahs to India. After seven adult cheetahs and three cubs died last year, the births have raised hopes that the cheetahs may be acclimating to Indian conditions.

According to the Cheetah Conservation Fund, the gestation period for a cheetah is 93 days, and litters range in size from one to six cubs. At birth, the “cubs weigh 8.5 to 15 ounces and are blind and helpless” and their “mother will groom them patiently, purring quietly and providing them warmth and security.”

In a few days, the mother will leave to hunt. The cubs will live in a secluded nest for the next six to eight weeks, being regularly moved by their mother from nest to nest to avoid detection by predators. The cubs begin joining their mother on its daily travels around six weeks of age. This period is fraught with danger for the cubs, with “less than one in 10 surviving.” The only protection that a cub has apart from its mother — whose mobility is restricted due to the babies — is a “long mantle of hair on their backs, which serves the dual purpose of keeping them warm and helping hide them from predators who mistake them for the aggressive honey badger," as reported by IndianExpress.

Between four to six months of age, cheetah cubs are very active and playful as they begin gripping tall ‘play trees’ that they climb. These trees serve as observational points that will one day help them survey the landscape for prey and keep a look out for predators.

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