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VIDEO: Cheetah cubs arrive at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo
The five babies will be moved into the Cheetah Rock enclosure this week
Cute cub Rabaa, from the first litter of Northern cheetah ever born in the UK, gives mum Dubai a kiss on the nose at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in a gesture that mirrors snaps from a human family album.
The tiny month-old cubs – three males and two females – have been named Itjane, Sanne, Tlata, Rabaa and Khamssa, which translates as numbers one, two, three, four and five in the North African language of Berber, spoken in Algeria where their critically endangered species originates.
Born to first-time mum Dubai, the little loving family are all doing well and will move into their public home in the Zoo's Cheetah Rock enclosure this week.
The cubs are a cause for great celebration for the zoo and the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme (EEP), as it is estimated that there are less than 250 individuals of this critically endangered subspecies remaining in the wild.
The Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which runs ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, works in Algeria to help protect these cheetahs in the wild, and conservationists from ZSL were the first to record camera-trap images of the elusive species in 2009.
Cheetahs have been a long-standing success story at the zoo, where a staggering 130 cubs – not even counting the new five born this summer - have been born and reared in the last 40 years.
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Weather for Leighton Buzzard
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -3 C to 1 C
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