Is this a video of the cheetahs recently bought to India?

Hyderabad: A video that shows a baby monkey clinging to its dead mother that is being carried by a leopard in its jaws is being widely shared with the claim that the video is of the cheetahs that were recently brought to India from Namibia.

Many fake claims along with videos and images have been doing the rounds on social media after five female and three male African cheetahs were brought to India under Project Cheetah.

"History is being repeated; foreigners are being brought to kill indigenous," a Facebook user wrote while sharing the video. (Translated)

Another Facebook user who shared the video also made the same claim.

Fact Check

NewsMeter performed a reverse image search of the video's keyframes and found similar photos in an article published by the Daily Mail on 21 October 2021. The article is titled "Heartbreaking end for a helpless baby monkey: Infant clings to its dead mother as leopard clamps her lifeless body in its jaws - before big cats devour both of them." It reported that the vervet monkey was killed by a leopard at South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. The baby monkey refused to let go of its mother and clung on as the leopard carried the dead body in its jaw.

The article also reported that the heart-wrenching moment was captured by wildlife photographer Shafeeq Mulla, who said, "Nature is not always pretty and this picture definitely shows us the harsh reality of life."

We also found a similar photo posted on Instagram by Shafeeq Mulla.

Further, we searched for the watermark "IGORALTUNA" from the viral video and found the video posted on Instagram on 29 November 2021 by Igor Altuna—a wildlife photographer.

It is evident that the viral video is old and is from Zambia. Hence, the claim is false.