The Newest, Cutest Baby Animals from the World's Zoos & Aquariums
The San Diego Zoo's Cheetah cub, Kiburi, remains as charismatic as ever. These photos, taken this weekend by ysaleth, show the little guy napping, drinking from a bottle, and yelping at adoring visitors from the Safari Park nursery.
Photo credits: ysaleth
More pictures below the fold!
awww, what a cutie pie!!! too bad they become lethal killers later on… LOL
Look at the lenght of his nails already! Even so, adorable!
This cub is so adorably photogenic. I am glad he will become an animal ambassador for his critically endangered species.
As for the “lethal killers” comment, like all cats he is a carnivore and a predator. Man is too, but we kill for many more unsavory reasons, not just to eat.
Agreed about the carnivore comment – that’s nature – but for the record, cheetahs are not critically endangered. They’re actually classified as “vulnerable,” which still isn’t great, but it’s far better than being on the brink of extinction (like, say, the South China tiger).
Hooray Cheetahs!
saw this baby today and he is to die for! such a tiny and helpless little animal. I am so thankful we have people that work on conservation and that help species who are rejected from their mothers to grow and be healthy. The handlers are great with him and really know what they are doing. He will grow up to be a majestic and beautiful cat and I can’t wait to go back to see how he’s progressed!
Cheetahs are listed as endangered under ESA and they are more vulnerable than other endangered species because they are essentially clones due to a genetic bottleneck that happened thousands of years ago. A disease could wipe them out in the wild rather quickly and they have gone through local extinctions in many areas. Right now the challenge is habitat loss and over all human impact, farmers, poaching, etc.
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