In a heartwarming display of maternal care, Dubai the cheetah closely accompanied her young cubs as they ventured into the world for the first time.
Fortunately for these 12-week-old cubs, their new environment was a secure enclosure at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, where no predators posed a threat.
Charming photos capture the moment the litter of seven took their tentative first steps during their public debut at the Zoo’s Cheetah Rock.
However, the cubs quickly gained confidence and were soon seen joyfully playing with their mother, Dubai, leaping over rocks and chasing one another.
With five or six siblings each to frolic with, the sextuplets discovered a whole new realm of fun, all while enjoying reassuring affection from their mother throughout the day. After spending their initial weeks safe in their den, this outing marked their first time outside.
These 12-week-olds are the second litter of Northern cheetahs—an endangered species—born at the zoo. Senior keeper Marie Brown remarked, “All seven are incredibly playful, and Mum is very patient with them, doing a fantastic job raising them.”
This birth follows Dubai’s first litter two years ago, marking the first Northern cheetah cubs born in the UK.
Their arrival is a significant milestone for the zoo and the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme (EEP), which estimated that fewer than 250 of these critically endangered subspecies remain in the wild.
ZSL actively works in Algeria to help protect wild cheetahs, and in 2009, their conservationists were the first to capture camera-trap images of this elusive species.
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