The week's good news: March 30, 2023

Big cats are back. In the 1950s, India saw a local extinction of cheetahs, with the animals no longer found in the wild due to hunting, habitat loss, and a lack of prey. Over the last few decades, the country attempted to reintroduce cheetahs, and finally in 2022, eight cheetahs from Namibia were brought to India, followed by 12 more from South Africa. On Wednesday, officials at the Kuno National Park Wildlife Sanctuary spotted four cheetah cubs, born likely last week to Siyaya, one of the cheetahs from Namibia. The cubs and Siyaya are healthy and doing well, the Press Trust of India says. This is “a momentous event,” India’s environment minister, Bhupender Yadav, tweeted, and he congratulated “the entire team of Project Cheetah for their relentless efforts in bringing back cheetahs to India and for their efforts in correcting an ecological wrong.” It’s estimated there are about 7,000 cheetahs in the wild, with most in Africa.

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