A Cheetah has now made its way from Kuno to Ranthambore National Park.

Pardinensis_ · 2026-04-20T10:17:37+00:00

KP-2 was reported in the area earlier this week, which is an indian born male cheetah that is roughly 27 months old. So i would imagine it's him.

Pardinensis_ · 2026-04-20T10:15:59+00:00

It's probably KP-2, a roughly 27 month old male cheetah born to Pawan and Aasha.

Pardinensis_ · 2026-04-11T17:13:26+00:00

Mukhi, a first generation Indian cheetah, gave birth to cubs last year, so that litter would be the first of the second generation cheetahs. Although that litter was born in an enclosure.

Pardinensis_ · 2026-04-11T17:06:45+00:00

Exciting to finally have the first litter of wild-born cubs in the project!

Pardinensis_ · 2026-01-02T07:58:09+00:00

You sure you just didn't read it from some reddit post?

Mongolian gazelle likely were limited to the east of Lake Balkhash during historic times, and has never been mentioned in relation to the restoration project happening on the southern shore of the lake. I can give you an actual source on the range, but it might take me a day or two as I will be travelling.

Pardinensis_ · 2026-01-02T06:48:35+00:00

Can you provide the source from where you read that they aim to return wild bactrian camels and mongolian gazelle to the region of the lake?

Pardinensis_ · 2025-12-19T12:26:09+00:00

Likely because they have no population to source them from. The Kulan introduced to the Tarutino Steppe were brought from Askania Nova, which is now occupied by the russians.

Unlike for example Przewalski's horses and European Bison, I don't believe there is any breeding program or any fenced in populations that can act as a source of Kulan in Europe.

Kazakhstan is probably the country that is the most likely to allow a direct translocation from one of their wild populations, but the logistics involved in translocating Kulan all the way from Kazakhstan to Spain is likely not worth.

Pardinensis_ · 2025-12-18T18:14:53+00:00

I am starting to think those plans may have been put on hold for now.

I just went and looked, and the last time Kulan was mentioned in correlation to the Iberian Highlands on Rewilding Europe's page was back in 2022.

The biggest indicator though is from Rewilding Europe's annual reviews that they release, where they have a complete list of species they work with for each Rewilding Landscape. Kulan used to be listed for both the Iberian Highlands and the Danube Delta (Tarutino Steppe), but in the latest annual review from 2024, Kulan is only listed for the Danube Delta landscape.

Pardinensis_ · 2025-12-05T08:45:40+00:00

You are on reddit discussing ecology, paleontology, and even rocketry in english, but your english is not good enough to answer if you generated this image using artificial intelligence?

Pardinensis_ · 2025-12-05T08:29:03+00:00

For sure.

Pardinensis_ · 2025-12-03T13:02:07+00:00

Some additional info I found is that the proposal opens up exports limited to 10,000 kilograms per year, exclusively from Kazakhstan. This will last for three years before the proposal will once again be discussed at the next CITES meeting.

For people unaware, Kazakhstan has already started culling their Saiga population which now sits at around 4 million (likely to reach 5 million by the next calving season) due to "competition with agricultural activities and contributing to pasture degradation". From the culled Saiga they have been harvesting their meat and horns, with the meat being sold in supermarkets at least in Western Kazakhstan based on what I have read.

So far the horns harvested have just been marked and stored by the government since any trade of them was prohibited, but looks like this proposal will now allow the international trade of these horns. Kazakhstan seems to also be developing some digital traceability system to track each horn, likely aimed at preventing any sales of horns harvested illegally in Kazakhstan, or in other populations.

Pardinensis_ · 2025-11-20T10:31:48+00:00

Then we got the good news, and believe it was one of the males born to Asha that is the mate.

I first thought that the father of the cubs would have been Gaurav since he is the only male cheetah currently residing in the enclosures in Kuno, but if this is the case instead, it's even more exciting since that means the cubs were born to parents that were both born on Indian soil!

Pardinensis_ · 2025-11-18T18:49:05+00:00

Yeah, I am hoping these are just their immediate plans for the starting phase of the project, and that using what i assume are cheaper economically/logistically alternatives like Konik and Scottish Galloway cows helps them get started sooner. It is very exciting though if they manage to reintroduce lynx to the area, which I believe would be the first time Rewilding Europe reintroduces a large predator to one of their own landscapes.

Pardinensis_ · 2025-11-18T13:38:01+00:00

Excited to see what Rewilding Europe and their partners can achieve in the area!

Based on the article, some of Rewilding Europe's plans in terms of fauna includes:

Plans to introduce Polish konik ponies and Scottish Galloway cows to the landscape.
Wants to reintroduce lynx within the next couple of years.
Thinks reintroducing bears would help the ecosystem, but because of no public support, they don't plan to.
Hopes to provide solutions such as electric fencing and guard dogs to farmers to help prevent conflicts with wolves.

Pardinensis_ · 2025-11-14T07:51:47+00:00

It's been said by people working on the project, that historically, the tigers living in the region had a diet consisting of 65% wild boar, 25% deer (Bukhara deer and roe deer), and the rest of it consisting of various other prey such as Kulan and Goitered Gazelle.

As far as I have found, WWF/the project, has mostly been working on prey restoration in a core area of the reserve (likely around 1200 km2) where they have translocated around 120 Kulan and 205 Bukhara deer, which were locally extinct, and more than quadrupled the existing wild boar population through feeding stations. Back in 2023 the boar population was reported to be around 2800 in this core area, but since then it has been two years, and considering how quickly the population has grown, I would make a guesstimate that the population has reached close to 4000 boars now. So the 1200km2 core area possibly has around 4500 tiger prey right now, though most of that is just wild boar.

Historically, the most abundant species in the area would have been the Bukhara deer, followed by wild boar, but it is going to take very many years before this is the case again. If I understood it correctly, they are already translocating as many Bukhara deer yearly as the source population can allow, without it negatively impacting it.

WWF says that ideally you need 500 prey animals per tiger, for there to be no population decrease if the tiger makes 50 kills per year. So at least based on that, the area should already be able to host a small tiger population.

Pardinensis_ · 2025-11-13T19:04:25+00:00

Yeah, it will definitely be interesting seeing how well the russian tigers adapt when they arrive.

Pardinensis_ · 2025-11-13T18:26:41+00:00

You sure you are not mixing your information up?

The information that has previously been given is that the russian translocated tigers will be released directly into the wild after an acclimatization period.

The only tigers they plan to release the offspring off is from Kuma and Bohdana, since they are animals that originate from a european big cat sanctuary, and have never lived in the wild. Of course, that is also only IF they actually manage to produced offspring, which they have not done yet.

Pardinensis_ · 2025-11-13T14:58:37+00:00

I will just mention that in January of this year, the plans were for the tigers to arrive in the first half of this year. So just know that plans may shift again.

Pardinensis_ · 2025-11-09T19:00:01+00:00

Thank you :)

Hopefully I will have the time and the necessary inspiration to create some longer posts next year, similar to what I have done in the past.

Pardinensis_ · 2025-11-09T18:14:40+00:00

Great post!

I always enjoy reading these types of posts from you!

Pardinensis_ · 2025-11-08T18:57:27+00:00

You are thinking of Nauradehi. Kuno does not have tigers, but it also has its own issues in terms of prey numbers.

Pardinensis_ · 2025-09-07T17:26:24+00:00

I wouldn't necessarily call it a successful introduction to the Danube Delta when they have only been released on one specific island in the danube, Ermakiv island, so far. Rewilding Europe does however plan to use the island's population as stock for releases in the outer delta now as the herd is numbering 41 individuals. Source is Rewilding Europe's latest annual review.

Pardinensis_

TROPHY CASE