A blog about the newest resident non-releasable cheetahs at CCF, Rainbow and Aurora, courtesy of our Cheetah Keeper, Jenny Bartlett.
On the 8th February 2013 CCF received a call from
a farmer telling us they had a young cheetah cub that was extremely weak. They had found her on the side of the road and
she obviously had not eaten for a while as she was too weak to get up and run
away. Luckily for the young cub, she was taken to the farm and given food and
water before the farmer called CCF.
Naturally CCF rushed to the aid of the cub and arrived a few
hours later. She was extremely thin so it did not take much to place her into a
crate to transport her back to CCF. After thanking the farmer for calling and
talking about how he can further help the wild cheetahs, the CCF staff were
back on the road heading back to CCF where they could do a better check of the
cub and give her more food.
Although weak, the young female was inquisitive and watched
out the window as we drove. About twenty
minutes before reaching the CCF centre, three rainbows appeared overhead which
looked beautiful and peaceful; it was
decided she would be named Rainbow.
After arriving at the centre, Rainbow needed constant care
and attention. Naturally
in the wild, cheetah cubs would not be on their own at such a young age of
roughly 3-4 months; they would always be with their mother or at least siblings,
so the CCF staff had to be with her constantly for the initial few days.
Each day she would be fed small portions, which could be up
to 8 meals a day. As she was starved it
was crucial to not overfeed her, but at the same time ensure she got enough food,
as well as vitamins and minerals she desperately needed. Over the first few
weeks Rainbow quickly put on weight and her fur and skin condition improved.
Now that her general health was not in danger it was
important that we now focused on her mental health as most young cubs coming in
from such a traumatic start normally become very depressed. The staff at CCF came up with a variety of play
items that she could play with from balls to toys tied on the end of string. This way CCF staff could move around and
trigger her chase response.
Because cheetahs run at such top speeds while hunting, it
is imperative that they learn how to chase and catch from a young age, which in
the wild would be something they learned from watching their mother. It was not
long before Rainbow started chasing the toys and
seemingly enjoying it. Playing did seem
to tire her out quite quickly, but this was to be expected as she didn’t have as
much energy as she should have for a cub at her age.
Sadly, there was one thing that CCF staff could not replace:
contact between two cheetahs, which is why it was very mixed emotions when CCF
received another call from a different farmer saying he had a young cheetah cub
and asking would we come and get it.
This little female cub was caught by the farmer. He kept her for roughly two weeks before calling CCF. Dr Laurie Marker went to collect the cub, but sadly for
the young cub, now named Aurora, she had been taken
away from her mother and siblings and had to be brought back to CCF.
Aurora was a bit feistier than Rainbow when she arrived and
was not in too bad of overall condition.
She was bloated from being fed too much and had her claws cut really
short, but the main thing was that she seemed very frightened. After spending a night in our
quarantine pen, Aurora was anesthetized and given a full health check to make
sure she was healthy, remove any parasites, and give her relevant
vaccinations without stressing her out. The next morning we decided it was time
to introduce her to Rainbow, as the sooner the two cubs were together the better it
would be for them.
The introduction could not have gone any better. As soon as Rainbow heard Aurora chirp she went
straight over to the fence line and chirped back. At this time, Aurora almost came out of her
crate, which she had not done since we received her two days earlier.
Eventually both cats met up at the fence line dividing them and touched noses.
We decided that we should open the gate and see how they did together, as the
keeper moved towards the fence line, Aurora ran back to her crate, however this
was not a problem for Rainbow as she strolled right in and sat down next to
Aurora. After a few minutes the staff witnessed
Rainbow grooming Aurora and they have been together ever since
Every day they are getting more confident and seem happy
together. They groom each
other after every meal and are always curled up beside one another. We are very sad that the two of them have had
such a bad start, but at least now they can develop with one another.
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