They are “strong, active, vocalizing and nursing well,” zoo officials say.
The cubs were born to Amani, their 4-year-old mother, on Oct. 3, about two hours apart. Amani is a first-time mom, as is the cubs’ father, Asante, who is 7. They were paired as part of a national cheetah breeding program and bred naturally in July, zoo officials said.Keepers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal where the cubs were born said the pair are “strong, active, vocalizing and nursing well” in a statement.
The cubs will stay with their mother so they can bond. Keepers said they will not interfere to figure out the cubs’ sexes yet and they will do a health checkup on them once mama cheetah is “comfortable leaving them for an extended period.” Officials said the cubs are a “significant addition” to a nationwide program that breeds and manages cheetahs in captivity.
In the wild, experts said, cheetahs are mainly in eastern and southern African parks where they live in small and isolated populations. There are roughly 7,000 to 7,500 cheetahs left in the wild, experts said, because of poaching, loss to their habitat and other issues. Cheetahs are considered “vulnerable to extinction,” according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
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