‘Notoriously hard’ animals to breed born at zoo| Video

One male and two female cheetah cubs were born on October 20.

The cubs were born to mother Kyan and father Jana. It’s the first successful litter Kyan has raised after giving birth to a cub in 2015 which had to be hand-raised due to milk production issues.

Keeper Jordan Michelmore said Kyan and the cubs had been monitored closely via CCTV while they were in their den.

“They’re growing very, very quickly. The little boy is our biggest one he weighed four kilos at his last weigh in, the little girls are about two and three kilos,” Ms Michelmore said.

The male cub has been named ‘Obi’ which means heart in Nigerian, while one female was named ‘Nyasa’ meaning water in Malawi and the other ‘Zahara’ translated as flower in Swahili.

Kyan has been very protective of her babies, Ms Michelmore said, always making sure they were nearby.

“She’s very tolerant of them, very patient with the three ones especially now that they are getting their own personalities. But she’s always with them, she’s always calling for them to be with her,” she said.

“And they’ve just started on solid foods as well. When we feed her we also put a little bit of food out for the cubs and calls them straight over and they all have a munch with her.”

The cubs have started to venture out of their den and were slowly getting more adventurous, Ms Michelmore said.

“All going to plan they should be on exhibit by March this year so that will be a very exciting thing to see,” she said.

Cheetahs were notoriously hard to breed, Ms Michelmore said, and the continued breeding success at the zoo was testament to the hard work of the keepers.

Cheetahs are classified as a vulnerable species in the wild.