Taronga Western Plains Zoo’s three newest additions to the Zoo family made their public debut on Thursday.
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Three cheetah cubs, under the watchful eye of their mother Kyan, showed just how far they’ve come in the last five months.
Born on October, 20, 2016, the cubs, one male and two females, are thriving, according to Taronga Western Plains Zoo Keeper Jordan Michelmore.
The male cubs name, Obi, means heart in Nigerian.
The female, Nyasa means water in Malawi and the other female Zahara means flower in Swahili.
While Keepers had to hand raise Kyan’s first cub, which is now almost 18 months old, this is her first successful reared litter, Ms Michelmore said.
Ms Michelmore said everyone was really proud of Kyan and how she has responded to the triplets.
“She’s such a good mum. She’s really made everyone really proud,” she said.
“Kyan is very protective of the cubs. But now that they’re getting a little bit older she is definitely starting to relax a little bit.
“Although she’s still got that protective ‘mum’ eye on the cubs at all times and she likes to be where she can see the cubs…”
Ms Michelmore said Kyan’s pregnancy was very “textbook”.
“Cheetahs are pregnant for about three months. Kyan’s pregnancy was very smooth the whole way through,” she said.
The Keepers were able to keep a closeful eye on Kyan’s pregnancy through CCTV.
“We were watching everything on CCTV camera that we had set up in the dens. Once we knew she was coming towards the end (of her pregnancy) we were watching very closely,” she said.
“But it was a very textbook pregnancy and textbook labour.. and we were very excited when three little ones popped out.
“While three cubs in a litter is normal, cheetah’s can have up to 6, 7 and even 8.”
Ms Michelmore said the cubs have been weaned for a few months and are now enjoying a diet of beef, chicken and kangaroo.
As cheetah numbers have dramatically fallen in recent years, Ms Michelmore hopes people take the opportunity to visit the cheetah cubs at the Dubbo Zoo.
“They’re numbers are dropping pretty dramatically. So I hope people can come and have an appreciation for them as well,” she said.
Ms Michelmore said generally in the wild the male cub would go off and find another lone male, as males seem to enjoy being together in a coalition, but because the cub is the only male in the litter the Zoo will hopefully find another single cub from somewhere else and pair them up later down the track.
“But for the now they’ll definitely stay with mum. They generally stay with their mum until they’re about two years of age,” she said.
“The ideal plan would be to breed them. Cheetah’s are very tricky to breed and there isn’t many of them in Zoo’s or in the wild. So if they could become breeding animals that would be the ultimate goal.”
Kyan and father, Jana, are African cheetah’s and are both very genetically valuable in terms of their genetics.
“These guys have a very important genetic line. So hopefully one day they might become breeding animals themselves,” Ms Michelmore said.
“I’m really excited for people to come and see them because Cheetah’s are my favourite animals. So I hope people will come down and really fall in love with them as well. They’re such an iconic species in Africa and they’re numbers are dropping so quickly.
Ms Michelmore said a recent Census found there were only about 7000 African cheetahs left in the wild, which was down 50 per cent from the last Census.