Cheetahs were recently re-introduced to India from Africa. From which language is the name ‘Cheetah’ derived?
- (a)Swahili
- (b)Afrikaans
- (c)Somali
- (d)Sanskrit
Correct — D, Sanskrit. The English word comes through Hindi and Urdu chita, and that word goes back to the Sanskrit chitra-ya, meaning variegated, adorned or painted — a description of the spotted coat. The animal's scientific name records something quite different: Acinonyx jubatus joins Greek akinetos, unmoved, with onyx, nail or claw, roughly 'immobile nails', because the cheetah's claws are only semi-retractile and stay partly exposed for grip, while the Latin jubatus means maned, for the ruff young cheetahs carry. The three rejected options are all African languages associated with the animal's present range, which is exactly why they are offered — but the English word travelled from India, not from Africa, and it entered the language when the cheetah was still an Indian animal, kept and trained for coursing by Indian and Mughal courts.
- (a)Swahili — An East African lingua franca in the cheetah's modern range, but not the source of the English word, which came through Hindi and Urdu from Sanskrit.
- (b)Afrikaans — Afrikaans developed in southern Africa from Dutch, centuries after the word cheetah had already reached English from India.
- (c)Somali — Another language of a cheetah range state, offered for the same reason as Swahili. The etymology is Indian: chita, from Sanskrit chitra-ya.
The cheetah was native to India until the twentieth century and was hunted to extinction here, the last confirmed animals being shot in the mid-twentieth century. Project Cheetah was launched to return the species to Indian grasslands using African stock: eight cheetahs arrived from Namibia at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh in September 2022, and twelve more came from South Africa in February 2023. The animals released are the African subspecies; the Asiatic cheetah, once found across India and Iran, survives only in Iran in tiny numbers.
A vocabulary question inside a wildlife current-affairs item, and the framing does the misleading. Because the reintroduced animals came from Africa, three African languages are put up as options and they feel right. The word itself, though, is one of the many Indian loans in English — like jungle, loot and shampoo — and it reached English while the cheetah was still an Indian animal used for coursing blackbuck. The Sanskrit root chitra, meaning variegated or spotted, is worth holding onto: it is the same element that appears in words for picture and for the variegated, and it names precisely what the coat looks like.
- The English word cheetah comes through Hindi and Urdu chita from the Sanskrit chitra-ya, meaning variegated, adorned or painted.
- The scientific name Acinonyx jubatus means roughly 'immobile nails', from Greek akinetos and onyx, with Latin jubatus for maned.
- The cheetah's claws are only semi-retractile, which is what the genus name records.
- Eight cheetahs were brought from Namibia to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh in September 2022, followed by twelve from South Africa in February 2023.
- The Asiatic cheetah, the subspecies that once lived in India, now survives only in Iran.
- Choosing an African language because the reintroduced cheetahs came from Africa — the word is Indian.
- Confusing the etymology of the common name with the meaning of the scientific name, which is about the claws.
- Treating the reintroduced animals as Asiatic cheetahs; they are of the African subspecies.
As an etymology or naming question attached to a wildlife news story, or as part of a statements item on Project Cheetah.
Consider the following : 1. Black-necked crane 2. Cheetah 3. Flying squirrel 4. Snow leopard Which of the above are naturally found in India?
- (a) 1, 2 and 3 only
- (b) 1, 3 and 4 only
- (c) 2 and 4 only
- (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Answer(b) 1, 3 and 4 only
The premise of the whole reintroduction, tested a decade before it happened. UPSC's answer excludes the cheetah from the list of animals naturally found in India, because the species had been extinct here since the mid-twentieth century — which is why 2022 counts as a return rather than a discovery.
Consider the following statements: 1. Lions do not have a particular breeding season. 2. Unlike most other big cats, cheetahs do not roar. 3. Unlike male lions, male leopards do not proclaim their territory by scent marking. Which of the statements given above are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(a) 1 and 2 only
The biology behind the same animal. Cheetahs cannot roar because the hyoid apparatus is fixed; they purr, chirp and growl instead — one of several ways the cheetah stands apart from the other big cats.
CDS_GK_2023_I_Q372023Cheetahs, brought from Namibia, were introduced in India to which one of the following National Parks?
- (a) Kaziranga National Park
- (b) Keoladeo Ghana National Park
- (c) Keibul Lamjao National Park
- (d) Kuno National Park
Answer(d) Kuno National Park
The same story asked six months earlier in the same year's first session. CDS covered the place in February and the word in September, so a candidate preparing this paper needed both the park and the etymology.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Cheetahs reintroduced to India in 2022 and 2023 were released in which national park?
- (a)Bandhavgarh National Park
- (b)Kuno National Park
- (c)Panna National Park
- (d)Satpura National Park
Answer(b) Kuno National Park, in Madhya Pradesh — eight animals from Namibia in September 2022 and twelve from South Africa in February 2023.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The scientific name of the cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, refers in its genus name to the animal's
- (a)Spotted coat
- (b)Semi-retractile claws
- (c)Running speed
- (d)Tear-line facial markings
Answer(b) Semi-retractile claws — Acinonyx means roughly 'immobile nails'.