This adorable footage shows three tiny cheetah cubs playing in the grass at their enclosure as they make their first public appearance at the world’s oldest zoo.
The footage shows the moment that three tiny cheetah cubs make their first public appearance at Vienna’s Schoenbrunn Zoo after being born.
The trio were born at the Schonbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria, to a new pair who only met in the spring, zoo officials announced on 23rd October.
The cubs were born at the beginning of September after the male cheetah joined the zoo’s enclosure earlier this year.
Video from Tiergarten Schonbrunn shows the three cubs exploring their enclosure while their mother keeps a watchful eye on them.
Zookeepers said they noticed the mother’s behaviour change and soon realised she had given birth.
Enclosure manager Andreas Eder said: “For the first three and a half weeks, the young were raised in a cave within one of the artificial clay mounds.
“Only after that did the mother bring them outside for the first time.”
The cubs are still being fed milk but will soon start eating meat as their mother begins introducing them to solid food.
Eder said the mother remains constantly alert and that visitors can often hear her calling her cubs if they wander too far.
Zoo director Dr Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck said: “Since it is the first offspring for both animals, the cubs make an important contribution to the genetic diversity of the European breeding programme.”
Cheetahs are listed as “vulnerable” on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), mainly due to the loss of their natural habitat in the African savanna.
The zoo’s cheetah enclosure was completely redesigned three years ago with the addition of new clay mounds and a water trench as a natural barrier, replacing the glass walls to allow visitors an unobstructed view of the animals.
Hering-Hagenbeck said: “This allows us to offer a more intimate and engaging experience of cheetah rearing than before.”
To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below. Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Simona Kitanovska, Agency: Newsflash
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