Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The monsoon is putting the Cheetah Project's monitoring system to the test, with heavy rainfall and dense cloud cover disrupting communication and making it harder for field teams to track radio-collared cheetahs. The monitoring system encompasses technology, equipment, vehicles and communication networks, as well as the personnel operating in the field. This has been admitted in the newsletter issued by Kuno National Park.
The 30 radio-collared cheetahs are continuously monitored via satellite-cum-radio collars. During heavy rainfall and dense cloud cover, satellite as well as radio communications and data transmissions may sometimes be delayed and not received, creating gaps between animals' actual movement and receipt of updated location information. This makes ground-based radio tracking and field verification even more difficult. At the same time, field teams have to operate continuously in difficult weather conditions.
Protecting radio detection and communication equipment from rainwater, keeping electronic equipment functional, maintaining vehicles and ensuring uninterrupted power and communication becomes an additional challenge. Teams have to remain in field despite rain, wet terrain, difficult driving conditions while maintaining the same level of vigilance.
As far as 30 radio-collared cheetahs are concerned then of them 12 cheetahs inside fenced natural forest areas include mothers with cubs. Their monitoring has a different character. As many as 18 cheetahs are free ranging, moving in wild across a landscape spanning six districts.
Monitoring operation extraordinary
Kuno official says that the scale and intensity of this operation are extraordinary. There is no parallel anywhere in the world, not only in cheetah conservation but arguably for any other wildlife species where such a large number of individual animals are being subjected to such a regular and continuous field monitoring.
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