28 March 2013
Two spotty playmates with a need for speed have moved to the nation's capital.
Canberra's National Zoo and Aquarium has acquired the two 10-month old female cheetah cubs from South Africa.
Ailsa and Zingula arrived seven weeks ago and have spent a month in quarantine, but are now putting their energy towards chasing bottles on ropes and basketballs, and tumbling over each other.
Zoologist Bec Scott told AAP on Thursday, cheetahs are flighty animals but the cubs are settling in well to their new surrounds.
"Everything is new for them, they get excited by their wallaby neighbours and when guinea fowls go past," she said.
The cubs, who are not blood-related, are fed two kilograms of meat a day - mostly chicken, venison and horse.
Ms Scott says they've grown quite tall and weigh about 25 kilograms but will double their weight as they mature.
The zoo will receive two male cheetah cubs later this year as part of a breeding program but they won't be introduced to the females until they become adults and sexually mature.
"Cheetahs are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity" as male and female cheetahs lose their attraction to each other if they live together, Ms Scott said.
"The males will need to come into the female territory when she's in oestrus. We'll have to watch the reproductive cycles."
After mating, the female cheetah is not particularly welcoming, she said.
"It's like, get in get out."
Members of the public will have the chance to get up close to the cubs and pat them as part of the zoo's meet a cheetah program.
Cheetahs are the fastest of all land animals and can reach speeds of 110 kilometres an hour.
