Love & Cute | January 10, 2023 3:33 AM | hangbony
Mom and 4 adorable, purring cheetah cubs at the safari park
In their brand-new enclosure at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park this morning, four cheetah cubs ran, climbed, and played. The kittens played with each other and chased birds until finally stopping to rest next to their mother, who fed and combed them. The kittens’ fun then resumed. When the cubs strayed too far from her line of sight, their watchful mother let out a loud chirp as a warning.
The two male and two female cheetah pups, who are approximately four months old, were born on July 13 at the Safari Park’s off-site cheetah breeding center to first-time mother Addison. This week, the tiny family relocated to their new habitat at the Okavango Outpost of the Safari Park. Paula Augustus, senior keeper, remarked that Addison “is an excellent mom, calm, confident, and extremely protective.” The cubs have distinct personalities and are noisy, inquisitive, and lively. Being able to observe a cheetah mother raising her kids is wonderful.
The two female babies are known as Pumzika and Mahala, while the two male cubs have been given the names Wgasa and Refu. All of them bear the names of former Safari Park locations. Keepers can distinguish the baby cats by their faces, tails, and markings. The cubs, who each initially weighed one to two pounds, are developing and in good health as they reach their present weights of 16 to 18 pounds. They consume raw meat as part of their diet while still nursing. The typical cheetah weighs between 84 and 143 pounds at maturity, with males being heavier.