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New Cheetah Offspring Experience Outdoors In Swiss Zoo For First Time

Two newborn cheetah cubs have visited the outdoor enclosures at Basel Zoo in Switzerland for the first time after they were born in April.

Two cheetah cubs could be seen playing in the outdoor areas of Basel Zoo, after spending the lockdown in their enclosure, on 14th June.

The male and female newborns, the first offspring of mother Dina (aged three), have successfully passed their first health check after they were born on 28th April.

The two new cheetah offspring that were born in the Basel Zoo on 28th April 2021. (Zoo Basel/Newsflash)

According to the zoo, as cheetah mothers raise their cubs alone, their dad Ross, four years old, will be placed in a different enclosure located in another part of the zoo that is inaccessible to visitors.

Additionally, Dina will raise the two unnamed cubs in the Etosha enclosure which comprises of two houses and several outdoor areas.

Cheetahs were first brought to Basel Zoo in 1936, whilst they have been successfully reproducing there since 1993.

The two new cheetah offspring that were born in the Basel Zoo on 28th April 2021. (Zoo Basel/Newsflash)

A spokesperson for Basel Zoo, which currently provides shelter for over 30 young cheetahs, told Newsflash: “The breeding of cheetahs is still a great challenge for zoos worldwide because of the animal’s unsociable nature.”

Cheetahs are listed as ‘Vulnerable’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, but after a recent study revealed significant population declines, scientists are calling for cheetahs to be uplisted to ‘Endangered’.

According to certain estimations, around 6,600 cheetahs live in the wild but they are still hunted by ranchers outside of their protected areas.

The two new cheetah offspring that were born in the Basel Zoo on 28th April 2021. (Zoo Basel/Newsflash)

Basel Zoo has been supporting the Big Life Foundation in Kenya which is a conservation project for predators located in the Amboseli National Park since 2013.

According to the zoo, the cheetah population in Africa has increased ever since the project started.

Zoo breeding programmes have also proven to be successful, however, cheetah breeding in captivity is still a rare event since only two out of 59 zoos that keep cheetahs as part of the EEP (ex-situ breeding programme) have produced young in the last 12 months.

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