Picture purr-fect: Cheetah investment pays off

Baby cheetah alert.

A litter of baby cheetahs was born at Goddard’s Tanganyika Wildlife Park earlier this month, which, according to the park, is the first time cheetahs have been born in Kansas.

The five cheetah cubs were born Dec. 4 to parents Amira and Enzi, which, the park points out, is also International Cheetah Day.

Amira and Enzi came to Tanganyika with two other cheetahs from a facility in Africa in 2010.

Tanganyika constructed an entire cheetah breeding facility – about $150,000 – and imported four more cheetahs from Africa, according to the park. Tanganyika now has eight adult cheetahs, according to Matt Fouts, the park’s assistant director.

“We knew (building it) would be a big financial commitment. We also knew we could be successful with breeding cheetahs and really help that species like we have with other cats,” Fouts said. “It was a leap of faith.”

Tanganyika is known for its big cat breeding programs – in the past, it has successfully bred clouded leopards, lynx, snow leopards, caracals, Bengal tigers, jaguars, Amur leopards, and servals. Those programs sometimes put them at odds with animal rights groups.

According to the African Wildlife Foundation, wild cheetah populations have declined 30 percent in the past 18 years, and approximately 50 to 75 percent of cheetah cubs born in the wild die “within months.”

“We’ve always done it with the animals in mind,” Fouts said. “We didn’t build the park – Jim (Fouts, Tanganyika’s director) never has had animals just to make lots of money or anything. He’s always wanted to make a difference.”

Some of the cheetah cubs will likely go to other facilities in the United States, Fouts said.

The park, which is closed in the winter, will provide weekly or at least semi-weekly updates on the cheetahs throughout the season on Facebook and Instagram, until it reopens to the public in March.

Baby cheetahs grow fast, Fouts said, and the public should be able to see the cubs when the park reopens in the spring.

“I don’t know if they’ll be in the nursery or one of the pens outside of the nursery, but we’ll find some way to have them on exhibit,” Fouts said.

This story was originally published December 16, 2016 at 1:51 PM with the headline "Picture purr-fect: Cheetah investment pays off."