The three newborn cheetah cubs taken from their mother have been put down.
Orana Wildlife Park officials made the "difficult decision" to euthanase the three cubs today after they were rescued from their mother on Saturday.
Park chief executive Lynn Anderson said it was an "agonising decision for the team and was not made lightly".
"The decision was made in consultation with our vet, who has over 20 years experience caring for our animals, particularly cheetah," she said.
"Unfortunately, the condition of the cubs was such that they were only being kept alive through 24-hour, intensive veterinary care and could not otherwise survive.''
The cats had entered their fifth day of life today in "a very unstable condition", Orana spokesman Nathan Hawke said.
All three had deteriorated overnight and were in incubators being fed through a tube this morning.
The condition of the cubs had "been up and down all week", he said.
Zoological manager Rob Hall said there were concerns for the animals from the outset.
"For example, by this stage [five days], the cubs should weigh around 700 grams, but the biggest only weighs 589g. We made the right decision for the cubs. We could see that they weren't going to make it," he said.
The cubs have been sent for an autopsy to examine the cause of their problems.
This would extend knowledge for the park and the international breeding programme.
The three cubs were the sole survivors from a litter born at the park on Saturday. Two cubs of the litter died overnight on Monday after their first-time mother, Mazza, 4, was unable to care for them.
Mazza may have eaten two of the litter before park staff took the cubs from her, but because of incomplete closed-circuit television footage, staff could not be certain.
The cubs were in incubators at Christchurch's After Hours Veterinary Hospital.
Cheetah are a difficult species to breed in captivity, with only a handful of zoos worldwide having repeated breeding success.
