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Keeper Updates on SCBI Cheetah Cubs
By Lacey Braun, Lead Cheetah Keeper
In December 2010, the Zoo celebrated the birth of two cheetah cubs at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI)—the Zoo facility in Front Royal, Virginia. The cubs were born to two separate females (the first, a male, to five-year-old Amani on December 6, the second, a female, to nine-year-old Zazi on December 16). Cheetahs that give birth to only one cub, called a singleton, cannot produce enough milk to keep the cub alive. Typically, females in the wild will let a single cub die, after which they will enter estrus and breed again. Scientists at SCBI resorted to an alternative technique. The cub born to Amani, a first-time mother, was hand-raised for 13 days before being placed with Zazi, creating a litter of two that will likely help stimulate milk production from Zazi. Follow the cubs' development in updates by Lacey Braun, the lead cheetah keeper at SCBI. 
Read the news about the births. | 
See cub photos.
Amani gave birth to five cheetah cubs on May 28, 2011.
April 13
On March 28, Amani and her five cubs moved to a new yard! The move went very well. We opened the gate, and Amani had no hesitation and went right out to explore. The cubs needed a little urging to leave their home and to follow their mother, but once they were in “lovers’ lane” they went right into the open gate of their new home. They are doing very well in their new yard. They are now located along the road and are more visible. They have the same neighbor, Sanurra, but now they have other neighbors across from them as well. They love lying on their mound as you can see in the pictures. They are almost 11 months old and now weigh between 58 and 78 pounds!
March 13
Amani’s cubs have been enjoying having access to the yard next door to their home. They have experienced having a neighbor and have enjoyed investigating a new enclosure. Our new female from South Africa, Sanurra, is their neighbor. She has been very nice to the cubs and enjoys running the fence line with them. Amani’s cubs are now 10 months old and have been enjoying new tasty additions to their diets and have started eating separately. I am still weighing them weekly. They are huge! Ashaki the largest male now weighs 30 kilograms (68 pounds) and Damisi our smallest female weighs 23 kilograms (52 pounds). The other female cub Savanna has learned how to jump on top of the huts so she can get a better view of things. They keep me laughing all day!
February 21, 2012
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| Sampson |
We have started the process of building our new cheetah coalition between Nick and Sampson.
Nick is now 14 months old and Sampson (Sam) is 20 months old. Sam is still very playful and it has seemed to us since he arrived here from South Africa in September of 2011 that he would like to have a buddy. Nick is at the age where we are starting to separate him slowly (what we call a “soft separation”) from his foster-mom, Zazi, and foster-sister, Maggie. For about the last month, Nick has been spending his days in the yard next to Sam, with one yard between him and his family. At first, Nick was unsure of Sam and was a little aggressive toward him on the fence. Sam still just seemed to want to play with a new friend!
Recently, we have started feeding Nick in the building with Sam. They are doing very well getting used to each other and we see less aggression between them on the fence. Nick has also started spending some nights in the yard next to his family so that they have access to each other through the fence, but are not physically in the same yard or building.
The separation process of juveniles is always hard, and it will be even more difficult for Nick because he is a single male. If he had brothers, he would be staying with them for his lifetime. We are hoping that giving Nick a buddy will help the separation process from his family. The next steps are to continue gradually having Nick spend more and more time away from his family and next door to Sam. Then, when we think Nick is ready, we will move Nick and Sam next door to each other on the other side of the facility so that Zazi and Maggie are not nearby and the separation from his family will be complete.
December 22
Amani and her five cubs are doing great. They had quite an adventure playing in the first snow on October 29! They sure had fun running around in it. The cubs are almost seven months old and they weigh between 35 and 45 pounds. They have received their names! Three of Amani’s cubs have been named by some of our generous donors. Two of the males are named Zephyr and Pounce. Zephyr means west wind. The largest female is named Savanna. The remaining male and female were named in the icanhascheezburger.com contest. We had more than 20,000 votes! The female that is the smallest cub of the litter is named Damisi which means happy in Swahili. The male was named Ashaki which means beautiful or handsome. Their names fit them quite well.
December 20
We had a birthday party for Nick and Maggie who turned one year old this month! They are getting so big! Nick now weighs 75 pounds and Maggie weighs 63 pounds. I made them a bloodsicle birthday “cake” with layers of meat and it had oxtails and rabbits on top of it. They loved it and shared very well. They also had gift bags and wrapped boxes that were ignored while they enjoyed their cake. Zazi had some treats of her own and then came over to help them finish their cake.
They are both doing very well. Maggie loves running the fence line with other cheetahs, especially Amani’s cubs. Nick still purrs to us which just melts our hearts. We are going to try to make a coalition with him and our new male from South Africa, Sampson, since they are so close in age.
August 18
Amani’s cubs received their last set of vaccinations today. The veterinary staff gave them all a clean bill of health! The cubs are now 12 weeks old and weigh between eight and a half to ten and a half pounds.
Today was the last time that we will handle the cubs, so I will be training them to step onto the adult cheetah scale to be weighed from now on. We will also not be able to shave them anymore so we need to be able to tell them apart before their hair grows back on their shave marks. We have taken photos of each of their faces for identification and we will be continually writing down their differences.
From left to right (identified by where they have been shaved): Right shoulder,
left shoulder, right hip, left hip, and center right.
The cubs certainly have different personalities already. The male shaved on the right hip is the smallest cub and is very independent and likes to sit on top the mound and watch the other cheetahs in the distance. The male shaved on the center right is the largest cub and always seems to have a huge tummy and weighs more than the others. He’s going to be a food stealer for sure!
August 11
All five of Amani’s cubs are eating meat now, and they're gaining a lot of weight each week. They're learning how to come up to the small yard for food when called. Today they are 75 days old and now weigh between seven and nine pounds. They are a lot more mobile and use the whole yard now. They love to climb on the logs and rocks. Amani is doing a great job raising them! Here's a video of them eating.
New Cheetahs Arrive at SCBI-Front Royal from South Africa
On August 1, 2011, we received a male and a female cheetah from DeWildt Cheetah Breeding Center in South Africa. They are both a year and a half old and still very playful. They are settling in well.
Sampson is a very vocal male and stutters to all of the surrounding cheetahs. He is looking for a buddy, and we are going to try to make a coalition with him and Nick. Sanurra is also very vocal and is fearless. She will run alongside the mower and is very interested in tour groups. We ran Sanurra on the lure and were amazed at what a good runner she is! We had a film crew come out so we could show off her talents. They are both very genetically valuable and are great additions to our breeding program.
Sampson
Sanurra
July 26
Amani is getting more comfortable with us being around the cubs. We have been feeding Amani through the fence down by where they are living in the tall grasses. Two of the male cubs that are shaved on the left hip and right hip were brave and came up and started eating a little bit of meat! The three other cubs aren't interested in meat quite yet but they enjoy grooming Amani’s face after she is done eating. I was able to get some great video of the family all together lying under the tall grasses so you can see where they are living. We are still weighing the cubs weekly and they are all gaining weight and are healthy.
July 18
Today Nick and Maggie enjoyed some creative enrichment that was made by the SCBI Overnight Campers. They made very elaborate animals made out of cardboard. Maggie was very brave. She ran right over and started chewing on the animal. Nick was slower to come up but was kind of stalking his prey. Maggie tore off a limb and ran away to enjoy it in peace. Nick proceeded to attack the animal and tore off its head.
Nick and Maggie are seven months old now and are still really playful. We have moved other females closer to them so they are still getting used to having neighbors. Nick is very protective of his mother and sister, which is very cute.
July 13
The cubs got their first exam with our veterinarians yesterday. The cubs, now six weeks old, are healthy and thriving, and they're growing quickly. They now each weigh between four and five pounds. The veterinary team performed full physical examinations to make sure none of the cubs had any abnormalities. They were given their first vaccinations to protect against respiratory and gastrointestinal viruses, both of which commonly affect cheetahs.
July 8
We have been weighing Amani’s cubs weekly. They are growing up fast. They are 40 days old now and weigh between 3 ½ and 4 ¼ pounds. We are pretty sure we have three males and two females! They are starting to show their individual personalities. LH (shaved for identification purposes on the left hip) is a very vocal little boy. We try to weigh him last so that he is not making a lot of racket the whole time. Some of the cubs are dark like Amani, and some of them are really blonde like their father, Sorris. They also have the silvery grey mantels down their back, which is good camouflage for them in the wild. They are getting very mobile. In this short video, you can see them take a walk through the tall grass.
June 22
Today we did the second check-up on the cubs. They seem happy in their new home. They are 25 days old and getting very spunky. They all seem healthy and their teeth have just started to break through their gums. They each gained around 300 grams and now weigh between 1.175 and 1.38 kilograms (2.6 and 3 pounds). We are pretty certain that we have three males and two females! Check out the new photo and video of the cubs.
June 21
Amani decided it was time to move her cubs to a new location. In the wild, a cheetah will move her cubs every few days because of the possibility of predation from a variety of animals, including lions, hyenas, and leopards. These frequent moves prevent a build-up of smell, and make it harder for predators to find the cubs. Amani knew she wanted to move her cubs, but she was unsure of how to pick them up. She very awkwardly picked up the first cub by its front right leg. She moved all five cubs out of the hut one by one. By the time she moved the last two cubs, she was an expert at picking them up by the scruff of their neck. Although we supplied Amani with two other huts and a building as den options, she chose to move her cubs to a shady area between three tall ornamental grass clumps. They are well hidden but unfortunately there is no camera access or protection from the rain.
June 17
When Amani didn’t eat on the morning of May 27, I knew that she was going to give birth soon! She had a very large belly and seemed really uncomfortable. She paced all afternoon and into the night. She finally settled down in an outside hut around midnight, and I thought she was going to start giving birth, but instead she just slept all night while I stayed up watching via a camera.
The next morning I went home to get some sleep, and I got a call around noon that she had started giving birth. She had her first cub at 12:30 p.m. on May 28. We were crossing our fingers that she was going to have at least one more cub this time. When the second cub came out at 12:45, we heaved a huge sigh of relief. Cub number three was born at 1:18 and we thought Amani was done giving birth when the three cubs started nursing. We were happy with the outcome.
Then an hour later, at 2:20, Amani gave birth to a fourth cub! At 3:15 the four cubs were nursing and Amani gave birth to cub number five! We were ecstatic that she had such a large litter of cubs this time. Finally, Amani was done giving birth. (Amani chose to give birth outside in a hut instead of giving birth in the building indoors, where the internal cameras are. We set up home security cameras in the hut so that we are able to watch her but they are, unfortunately, not able to be viewed by the public. )
In the following days Amani would come out to get a drink of water every now and then but she did not want to stay out long enough to eat. It took her five days to feel comfortable enough to come out to eat. She has been a very good mother, and she is very protective of her cubs.
On June 14 we gave the cubs their first check-up (and took a few photos) while Amani was away, eating. They are 17 days old and their eyes have opened. At this time, because they are so young, it is hard to determine what sex they are for sure. We shaved them in certain places so that we can tell them apart next time we weigh them to see how much each individual cub gains. They all looked healthy and active. They weigh between 900 and 1,060 grams (32 and 37 ounces).
June 15
The cubs have received their names! They have been named Nick and Maggie after our generous donors Nick Arundel and Maggie Bryant. They are now six months old. Maggie weighs 32 pounds, and Nick weighs 37 pounds. Zazi is still being a great mother. The family has been living in Cheetah Yard 3, which unfortunately does not have cameras, but the cheetahs are very comfortable in this yard. They have been enjoying frozen "blood-sicle" treats during this warm weather. They are continually improving during training sessions, which will make it easier to work with when they are older. Nick is still our silly little boy who purrs to us, and Maggie is growing into a beautiful little cheetah.
April 21
We moved the family to a new yard yesterday. There was some water damage to the road near their old yard so we moved the cheetahs so it could be repaired. Zazi and the cubs were given access to Cheetah Yards Two, Three, and Four to explore on the way to their new yard.
First, Zazi had to make sure if it was safe for the cubs. After smelling around for a while she called them and they came running. They played on the stump in Yard Two for a while while mom smelled around in Yard Three. There were a lot of cheetah smells in this yard because another cheetah, Ally, had been living there and the male cheetahs recently visited.
Finally the whole family worked its way to Yard Four where Zazi and the cubs will be living for a while. They are pretty close to Ally and another female, Olivia, but they seem really comfortable in their new home.
The cubs are getting big! The male is 19 weeks old and weighs 25 pounds. The female is ten days younger and weighs 21 pounds. Check out the new photos!
March 18
Last night Zazi and the cubs were given access to the small outside yard for the first full night. We were happy to see that they still came back inside the building to sleep since it's still a little chilly at night. I have started some training with the cubs. I am working on crate, scale, and target training. They have caught on very quickly. The little girl is very food motivated like her mother. The little boy purrs constantly but gets distracted very easily during training sessions and would rather run around and play.
March 1
Today was the cubs’ first day out in the large yard. They had so much fun running around and exploring. They love climbing on the log and stump. At first they were very clumsy and unsteady. But they are getting more confident and agile all the time. The yard contains a large mound of dirt so they can get up high and look over the facility, similar to sitting on top of termite mounds in the wild. Zazi was so excited to have her cubs in the large yard that she was running around and even chasing them playfully at times. Until the night temperatures are warmer, you can still watch Zazi and cubs on the 
web cam in the building.
February 12
Today was the first day the cubs went outside with Zazi! They followed mom outside with no hesitation, and caught their first glimpse of other cheetahs in the distance. Zazi kept a watchful eye on them as they explored. They were given access to the small yard at 9:30 a.m. and they didn’t stop running around until 11:30. Exhausted, they stopped to nurse and take a nap inside. The cubs played for the rest of the afternoon before coming back in for dinner. They had a big day and wore themselves out!
February 7
The web cam of the cheetah cubs is now available to the public! One side is a view of their nest box and the other side is their "play room." If you don’t see the cubs on either cam, they may be playing in the middle of the rooms out of view. The male cub has the typical silvery mantle down his back and has shave marks on both of his hips. The female is darker in color and is not shaved. They got their first enrichment item which you may see them batting around and chewing on. They are still growing like crazy. Both cubs are now eating meat but they will continue to nurse for awhile longer. Watch the cubs on the cam!
February 1
The female is now leaving the nest box, and the whole family goes back and forth between the two rooms in the building. The female’s favorite thing to do is to chew on Zazi’s ears and to clean them for her. The male cub loves to play with Zazi’s tail and to lick her face after she comes back inside from eating. The cubs are now seven and eight weeks old and have a full set of baby teeth. Today they had their first experience with raw meat. We put a tray of small meat pieces in the building for Zazi to share with the cubs. The male ate the meat right away and seemed to really enjoy it. The female sat back and watched her brother and Zazi eat almost the whole tray of meat before she came to investigate. I’m sure she will catch on soon!
January 27, 2011
The cubs received their first vaccinations yesterday. They both appear to be healthy, Zoo veterinarians said after completing the cubs’ health exam. “Both cubs were given a clean bill of health and were great patients," said Margarita Woc-Colburn, associate veterinarian at the Zoo. “We are hopeful that under our care they will continue to remain healthy as they get older.”
The veterinary team gave the cubs a full physical exam and checked to make sure that neither is afflicted by abnormalities or infectious diseases. The cubs were also given vaccines to protect against respiratory and gastrointestinal viruses, which commonly affect cheetahs.
“Zazi has been absolutely wonderful with the cubs and is a very good mother,” said Adrienne Crosier, SCBI cheetah biologist. “She treats them both equally and is very devoted and protective. She is very tolerant and patient with them.”
Check out these photos from the exam and from a few days earlier.
January 15, 2011
The male cub learned how to get in and out of the nest box, and he hasn’t let Zazi rest since! In the beginning she would go and get him and carry him back to the nest box but after about the fifth time in a row she just watches him come and go as he pleases. The female has not learned how to leave the box yet. We put a small water bowl in the stall and the male has learned how to drink from it and play in it. We put a rock and a log in the stall for him to climb on but he still prefers to climb on mom.
January 12, 2011
The animal care staff weigh the cubs every day (while Zazi is outside eating) to make sure she is still lactating. The cubs are growing like weeds! They weigh between four and a half and five pounds. They are now 27 and 37 days old and getting very active. Zazi’s cub is a female. The male cub is close to leaving the nest box but Zazi picks him up and pulls him back from the edge to tell him that he is not ready for that adventure. The cubs have started playing together and walking all over the top of their mom. They are scheduled for their first vaccination in two weeks.
December 21, 2010
When Amani’s cub was 15 days old, having been hand-raised for 13 of those days, we put him in the nest box with Zazi’s five-day-old cub. We rubbed the two cubs together and put him in the nest box while Zazi was locked outside and busy eating. The animal care staff and veterinarians watched the cameras intensely. When we let her back in, Zazi immediately picked up the male cub and put him back down and started grooming him intensely. At this time we do not think she realized that there were even two cubs in the nest box because she almost sat on her own cub while grooming the male. Eventually, she groomed her cub as well and started to relax in the nest box. Her cub started nursing right away and after about an hour the male cub successfully started nursing! Over the next few days, the cubs fought over the prime nursing spots since they were not used to sharing. Zazi is a very tolerant mother and we could not have hoped for better.
December 16, 2010
Zazi went into her outside hut on day 93 post-breeding. Her hut had a camera so we were able to see right away that she had also given birth to a singleton. Instead of our hand-raising two cubs, it was the perfect opportunity to give Zazi another cub to raise. A second cub would help to stimulate her to continue lactating. While bottle-feeding Amani’s cub, we used a piece of fur around the bottle to simulate the fur of a cheetah mother. The cub’s last night in the clinic, the staff placed shavings from Zazi’s nest box in the incubator with him. He slept all night in these shavings, which we hoped would transfer some scent to the cub as well as introduce him to the smell of his new mother.
December 5, 2010
Amani went into her outside hut and did not come out for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, the hut did not have a camera, but we suspected that she went in there to give birth. A cheetah’s gestation is 90 to 96 days, and December 5 was day 90 post-breeding for Amani. We were quietly working in the area for the next couple of days so as not to disturb her. The evening of December 7 Amani emerged on her own for some food and then went right back to the hut. On the morning of December 8, while Amani was out of the hut to eat, we were able to sneak a quick peek into the hut and saw only one cub. A typical litter size for cheetahs is three or four cubs. If a female gives birth to only one cub it is called a singleton. Cheetahs are unusual in the fact that they are not able to care for just one cub. The theory is that one cub does not stimulate the mother enough to keep producing milk. Amani was doing a very good job caring for her cub, but due to the cold temperatures and the fact that we knew she would not able to keep nursing the cub long-term, we decided to pull the cub for hand-raising sooner than later. When we got the cub to the clinic, we placed him in the incubator to warm up. It took him a little while to figure out how to drink from the bottle but, after he caught on, he ate hungrily.
