alright is this exciting or what we're up here at the cat show we're with
Alicia Sampson were with a couple of baby cheetahs and tell me about this
this one's Cathryn yep this is Cathryn that's willow over there they're twins
right well yeah they're from the same litter so them in red oh yeah and we
have let's see you guys are about seven and a half months old right now yeah
they're getting big but these are the ones you probably saw in the nursery
they were so little they were premature they had all kinds of trouble but with a
lot of TLC they're starting to grow up and do pretty well so at 7 months old
these guys are growing up how are they doing they're doing great you know
they're learning just like the rest of our cats would it took them a little bit
longer because you know they were in the nursery a little bit longer but they're
out here walking on a leash getting ready for school programs doing events
they're doing really really well some are shyer than others you know miss
Catherine sometimes doesn't like to go out by yourself yeah you know typically
cheetahs are solitary animals I don't want to live in a group like lions so
how's that change over time what do you think she'll stay with her sister or not
you know it's hard to tell a lot of our some of our cheetahs especially like our
boys would always stick together so we're we're thinking Redd and Donnie will
probably pair up and we're going to pair these guys up eventually as well and
then separate the males and the females but yeah the girls might want to be
separated um that won't happen until like a year and a half to two years old
you'll start to see that like natural separation as they would in the wild
when they start leaving their siblings so we'll just have to see what happens
and wait to see it what plays out now what does she weigh now probably 25 30
pounds yes she's about 35 yeah man alive you're
growing up yeah it's so fun to just be right next to her she's purring and of
course you're giving her treats now our zoo invented running cheetahs right they
chase the lure we do our shows twice a day and are these guys running yet
they're not running yet but hopefully soon in the next like month or so
they'll be running we want to get them running before it gets too cold outside
for the wintertime but they're doing really well well I know that they
can run because I've seen them running around chasing each other but they
haven't been trained yet now they're sort of older brother as it were from a
different litter out west Donnie he's what just to come weeks older yeah
he's ten days older than me yeah and he's a little bit bigger but I know he's
already in training in Man Alive seeing that he can really run he can he can run
quick he he's a fast little demon of course cheetahs run for a living but
what's it taking a train one so it can run kind of on cue you know the funny
thing is you don't really have to train a cheetah how to run you know we train
them what the chase so these guys the most important thing that we train them
is not to be scared of what they're chasing you know cheetahs being big
scaredy-cat so themselves and then also staying with the lure you know when we
run places we need to make sure that that cats going to get on the lure and
stay with it and not try to run off and go do something else
so the biggest it's the mechanics of the run is the stopping but not the chasing
it necessarily but the keeping with the lure and staying with it at the end and
then also giving it back that's a big important part is you're going to give
me that fluffy toy back and not hold on to it and you incentive is food food
yeah number one incentive his food for all of us that's right now you know in
cheetahs the males are bigger and as a result they're a little bit slower but
they can catch bigger prey right why do you think the females are faster well
you know my theory of the females are fasters you know these guys have to feed
their prep there they're young all this okay so go away do their own thing
nobody helps them out so these guys kind of have to be more efficient because
they have somebody relying on them in there a little smaller I mean about 20
pounds on average exactly yeah the females tend to not weigh a hundred
pounds as a result the smaller prey their favorite things are small gazelles
like Thompson's gazelles have our cheat has ever seen the Thomson's gazelles
down because they might instinctively say that looks like them you know our
Bank cheetahs definitely have they actually could see the Lions they love
looking at the baby giraffes that was a lot of fun especially when they were
brand new and running around other need just sit out in this yard and
just stare down there for hours so we're headed toward winter time and obviously
it's not going to be our Big Show season what goes on with the cat show you know
now till spring so now till spring especially with four baby Cubs these
guys will all be training so they'll be in the spring show starting off doing
running and then also our school program so we our school programs start next
week we have that going on about three days a week and these guys all learn to
that's why they're walking on a leash to go out to a school program and behave in
front of kids and adults and go out there and show everybody else off what
they do and I know pretty regularly when we have over night groups that come from
Scout groups or schools or whatever they'll interact with you guys as well
here at the zoo yep we do the nocturnal programs in the morning we try to go up
there if there's school groups coming on and the take new cats up there
especially like the cheetah cubs are baby kittens or baby house cats get them
used to seeing people and used to do in programs now we've got some cheetahs up
here right now we've got the four young ones yep and how many two or three other
ones so we have four four baby cheetahs and then we have three adults yeah she
does yeah we're the cheetah capital of the world that's fun we had Bravo and
Chance also on display down here so there's nine cheetahs here at the zoo
and in addition maybe twice that out of our breeding farm so yeah yeah since the
Zoos in the cheetah business next time you visit the zoo
take a peek up here you might see these guys out running or training and they
were getting ready for the spring thanks.thanks thing