Baby Cheetah Getting Back up to Speed at the Cincinnati Zoo

Thursday, August 20 at 10:30 a.m.

WHO:             “Nia Faye,” the Cincinnati Zoo’s 7-week-old, female African cheetah cub, is now on exhibit in the Zoo’s nursery.  She was born at the Zoo’s regional cheetah breeding facility in Clermont County on July 2nd, but she had to be moved to the Zoo’s Nursery after her mother, Purdy, could not provide adequate care. In an effort to get the cub back up to speed, Nursery staff  bottle fed the cub six times each day until she was five weeks old. The cub is now eating meat with the help of the Nursery staff and she currently weighs six pounds. 

WHAT:           Typically cheetahs are raised in a litter in which they can bond with other siblings. Two days after Nia Faye was brought to the Nursery, Mashka, the Zoo’s resident domestic cat was introduced for companionship and to develop the cub’s social skills and physical development.

                        “Nia” means purpose in Swahili.  After her stay in the Nursery, Nia will join the Zoo’s Cat Ambassador Program and her role and purpose will be to educate audiences about the amazing adaptations that a cheetah has for survival, their plight in the wild and our role in conserving cheetahs on earth. 

The Zoo’s breeding facility is one of only four similar facilities in the United States managed by the Species Survival Plan. Since 2007, four out of only eight cheetah cub litters born in North America were born in Cincinnati, more than anywhere else in the world. In total, there have been 37 cheetah cubs born in Cincinnati.