After nine years of hard work and dedication Monarto Zoo will again have a litter of Cheetah cubs on display with the public debut of mum, Nakula, and her five cubs born in October last year.

As of today, 15 January, visitors will have the opportunity to see the cubs after spending the first 14 weeks of their life in an off-limits facility.

Cubbies!

After last week's vaccination and first health check on our five little Cheetah cubs, it was determined that the sex ratio of our litter is two males and three females. They're very much on the move now and are doing fine after their check, with no reactions or issues following the procedures. Up to around week five they were spending most of their time in the den, but now they want in on the action and are following mum, Nakula's, every move.

Cubbies!

There's more excitement for Monarto Zoo with the birth of five Cheetah cubs to breeding queen, Nakula, the mother of the zoos recently hand raised single cub.

Zookeepers are excited by the new arrivals, born in an off-limits area on October 8, as they're the first litter to be born at Monarto Zoo in seven years.

Monarto zookeepers are excited to introduce the zoo's Cheetah cub, born June 2, to the public as part of the September school holiday program.

Visitors during this period will be some of the first to see the cute cub who, until now, has been housed in an off limits quarantine facility.

Well, our precious little Cheetah cub is definitely a carnivore! She now weighs 1,305g and has been introduced to chicken mince this week which she thinks is great, munching it all down very quickly.

Cute carnivore!

Monarto Zoo's yet to be named Cheetah cub 'little miss' is now just over four weeks old. She is healthy, strong and continues to grow weighing in at 1,100g yesterday. She drinks 120ml of milk over 24 hours and is growing steadily. She plays quite a lot now and has started watching what goes on around her a lot more. She has been taken out into the sunshine for short periods of time, while still being held by her carers and her favourite toy is a stuffed elephant that she has started gently tackling and ear chewing!

Our female cheetah cub, born on the afternoon of Saturday, June 2, is now eighteen days old. She's doing very well and is a strong willed cub having taken after her mother, Nakula. Nakula is from the first litter we bred at Monarto Zoo back in 2003.

Apart from a little hiccup last week which led the cub to shy away from her feeds she has steadily increased in weight since we began hand raising her, putting on an additional 250g! Maybe she had a sore mouth or didn't like the teat we were using but with lots of patience from her raisers, we got her through it and she's feeding well again!

Her little claws have become quite sharp, this week we gave her a manicure as she was beginning to shred our hands during feeding, a true carnivore! Her legs have also become stronger and she can now move around her 'home' more easily, even though her baby steps are still a bit wobbly.

She's changing and developing so fast, we'll keep you up to date as often as possible.

Michelle Lloyd

Carnivore Keeper, Monarto Zoo

It may be winter but for the Cheetah at Monarto Zoo spring has come early with the birth of the first Cheetah club in several years.

Zookeepers are excited by the surprise arrival of the yet to be named female cub, born in the early hours of June 2, as recent blood tests on mum, Nakula, were negative.

Above: Little miss enjoying a feed, and one of the first pictures of the cub with its eyes open.

Last week all of Monarto Zoo's Cheetah were moved back to their usual enclosures in preparation for the next breeding season. Our three females are now off display in their breeding yards with our two breeding males remaining in the main exhibit most of the time, except when they are involved in runbys. Askari, Skukuza and Tsotsie, Monarto's three hand-raised males, are back on display in the platform exhibit. All of the Cheetah were very excited to move back to these enclosures, especially after having different animals in there over the last few weeks.

Interview with the Courier newspaper first up for the Churchill fellowship, seemed to go well. Just before 10 the team starts to arrive for our big procedure today: semen collection from our aged male cheetahs.

The team includes some human reproduction specialist from Repromed, a comparative anatomist from the uni and a reproductive ecologist with two of his recent PhD students.

The knockdown and collection go well in the first one but the other male doesn't appear well enough to produce any sperm. Samples are stored in liquid nitrogen for future use.

No time for anything else and soccer training cancelled due to weather. At home get invite to first Churchill planning meeting next week.