The Wilds in Ohio just finished their naming contest for their twin cheetah cubs, one male and one female, born on Octotber 31 to mom Tabu. We hear they are down to 4-6 sets of names but thought you'd like to see these babies as they decide. This is the second litter for Tabu but the first she is raising on her own. She's doing a great job, and has been very protective of her two little cubs.

Female cheetahs typically bear three to five cubs in a litter and the cubs stay with their mothers until they are 12 to 20 months old. A full-grown adult cheetah weighs between 86 and 143 pounds. Cheetahs live and hunt in open grasslands and bushy areas in parts of Africa and the Middle East. They are the fastest land mammals, reaching speeds of 60 to 70 miles an hour over short distances. 

Cheetahs are included on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list of vulnerable species (African subspecies threatened, Asiatic subspecies in critical situation) as well as on the US Endangered Species Act: threatened species. Today there are just 12,400 cheetahs remaining in the wild, and the biggest population is currently located in Namibia with about 2,500 individuals. Asiatic subspecies is critically endangered counting only fifty to sixty individuals that still have their habitats in Iran.

Photo Credit: The Wilds