Taronga Western Plains Zoo is celebrating breeding success with the birth of three Cheetah cubs, one male and two females on 20 October 2016.

The cubs were born to mother Kyan and father Jana. This is the first successful litter that Kyan has raised after giving birth in 2015 to a single cub that was hand raised after 11 days due to milk production issues.

Keepers have named the male cub, ‘Obi’ meaning heart in Nigerian and the female cubs ‘Nyasa’ meaning water in Malawi and ‘Zahara’ meaning flower in Swahili.

“We have been monitoring Kyan and the cubs closely via CCTV while they are behind-the-scenes in the den,” said Keeper, Jordan Michelmore.  

“Kyan is doing a wonderful job at mothering the cubs, we are really proud of how attentive she is and the maternal behaviours she is displaying.”

“The cubs have just started to venture out of the den with mum, they are getting more and more adventurous but still spend time in the den,” said Jordan.

“Over the coming month we will see the cubs grow in size and confidence and start to be more playful with each other,” said Jordan.

Cheetahs are notoriously hard to breed and the continued breeding success at the Zoo is a testament to the hard work the keepers have been putting,” said Jordan.

Cheetahs are classified as vulnerable, so every birth is extremely valuable to the global population given the low numbers in the wild.

The Cheetah cubs are expected to go on exhibit by March 2017.