Dog becomes surrogate mother to five premature cheetah cubs

The mother of five cheetah cubs at the Cincinnati Zoo died shortly after giving birth earlier this month, so the zoo’s resident nursery dog has stepped in to comforted the newborns.

The cubs were born on March 8 via caesarean section and while the zoo hoped the five-year-old mother would make a full recovery she unfortunately died shortly after.

“Cheetahs are a fragile species and this difficult birth proved to be too much for her to pull through” Thane Maynard, Director of the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, said.   

The cubs have been receiving critical care in the zoo’s nursery since they were born.

Blakely is an Australian Shepherd and has been assigned the task of surrogate mum, to help provide snuggling, comfort and a body to climb for the orphaned cubs.

“His first job is to let the cubs climb on him, which they did as soon as they were put together. They need the exercise to build muscle tone and get their guts moving,” head nursery keeper Dawn Strasser said.

As the cubs continue to grow, Blakely’s role will develop from a climbable companion to a role model and teacher.

Staff have also been bottle-feeding the premature cubs every three hours and closely monitoring their weight.

The five cubs, two girls and three boys, will remain in the nursery for at least eight-12 weeks.

Cheetahs are endangered, and their population worldwide has shrunk from about 100,000 in 1900 to an estimated 9000 to 12,000 cheetahs today.