5 week old Northern Cheetah Cub (Acinonyx jubatus soemmeringii) 29th July 2

I can see a lot of time being spent around these little stars this summer

Very cute
I think I'm going to have to bring my long lens for a walk.

Alan

gentle lemur said:

Very cute
I think I'm going to have to bring my long lens for a walk.

Alan

Click to expand...

Indeed although they were so close to the glass you could get decent images with a good point and shoot today

I am very happy to see these cats at risk

@fofo

As I said before: there is now a good captive-breeding programme for soemmeringii from NE Africa in EAZA zoos driven by Emirati zoos (Dubai and Sharjah).

I sincerely hope we can - at some point - do the same for Asiatic cheetah venaticus and increase their numbers in a reserve second source population.


@karoocheetah
Nice shot. Glad the cubs are now out and about.

Status wise:
3 European EAZA collections have now bred soemmeringii (that is a 100% success rate with 4 others assembling groups in Europe. The Peninsular Arabian group consists of 4 known holders (with 3 having breeding groups and 1 group assembling with stock from the others).

it is a shallow gene pool but sometimes you need to paddle before you dive in the deep end hey?

I too hold out strong hopes for successful breeding of the Asiatic Cheetah subspecies at some time in the near future.

Fortunately, this year has seen an increase in asiatic cheetah cubs and the mother
The program will start soon and reproduce in captivity

karoocheetah said:

Indeed although they were so close to the glass you could get decent images with a good point and shoot today

Click to expand...

I think they spent the entire day today (Saturday 30th) near the 'yurt'. At 10.10am a keeper told us early birds that she would move them away when the crowds built up - but he was entirely wrong. There was a big audience all day - who were delighted by the cubs antics and CurlyTail's mothering skills.

Alan