News and Stories

By: Trainers Emily and Andie

Happy International Cheetah Day! This year, we have an extra special reason to celebrate- we welcomed 2 cheetah cubs into the Cat Ambassador Program! The cubs were born at the Zoo’s off site property at Mast Farm. The Cincinnati Zoo is 1 of 10 AZA centers, all members of the Cheetah Species Survival Plan, who work together to maintain & grow a genetically diverse population of this endangered species.

Their names are Zola and Lulu! Both are Swahili words with Zola meaning “tranquil” and Lulu meaning “pearl.” Currently, the cubs are being raised at the zoo’s nursery by a dedicated team of their keepers and neonatal specialists. They are still taking bottles of formula and are working their way towards being weaned in the coming weeks. When they are not eating or sleeping (which are both super cute) they like to teeth on various toys. Sometimes when they sleep, their little feet move as if they’re dreaming! They also enjoy playing together and cuddling up near one another for naps. They also enjoy being with their care staff, slowly learning to walk towards them and enjoy getting socialization time with their keepers. Both cubs are getting better at walking and moving around and will be running around the nursery before we know it!

Life in the nursery is exciting; however, once they are weaned and have all the necessary vaccinations, they will head up to our cheetah encounter building where they will get acclimated to all the new sights and smells. You may be wondering, are Lulu and Zola getting puppies like some of our other cubs have in the past? The answer is no- these two girls have each other to play with and learn from, so they don’t need the companionship of a puppy like our solo cubs in the past have. 

As they get older they will continue to play and learn how to be ambassador cheetahs, eventually running in our cheetah encounters when they are old enough. All of the hard work our care team is putting into their upbringing from the beginning is vital to them becoming the incredible ambassador cheetahs you will eventually see running in our programs. Our program has been hand-rearing cheetah cubs as ambassadors for decades to provide a vital role to cheetah conservation, being ambassadors for their species, and educating guests locally and around the world! Thanks to the cheetahs we have had in our program, people are able to witness one of the most remarkable feats of an animal on the planet, cheetahs running up to 70 miles per hour! (And one of our ambassador cheetahs still holds the record for fastest cheetah ever recorded!) Our hope is that by seeing the cheetahs at the Cincinnati Zoo’s Cat Ambassador Program, people feel inspired to help save wildlife and wild spaces.

Unfortunately, cheetahs are endangered due to things like habitat fragmentation, the illegal pet trade, and human-wildlife conflict. The Cincinnati Zoo supports many programs that help cheetahs in their native ranges in Africa. One such program is Cheetah Outreach, which works with local communities to ensure the survival of the species. Something they do that we love to highlight is their guard dog program. They breed livestock dogs and give them to farmers in Africa to protect their flocks of sheep and other farm animals from predators like cheetahs. This can significantly reduce human-wildlife conflict and reduce the amount of cheetahs harmed when they are near livestock areas. They do so much more than just livestock dogs, so if you’re interested they have a fantastic website that details all of their efforts and even includes some super cute pictures! A portion of each ticket sale here at the zoo goes toward supporting conservation programs like Cheetah Outreach, so every time you visit, you are helping to save cheetahs in Africa!

You can follow Zola and Lulu’s journey on all of the zoo’s social media pages until they are viewable to the public!