St. Louis Zoo Welcomes Their Biggest Litter Of Cheetah Cubs

A cheetah mom just earned the right to her name, when she gave birth to a record number of cubs in a ZOO. Her name is Bingwa, which in Swahili means “champion”. The 4-year-old resident of the Saint Louis ZOO has given birth to the record breaking litter three weeks ago.

In over 430 litters documented by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, this is the first where a cheetah has given birth to and reared eight cubs of her own at a ZOO. To put into perspective, the average litter size is three to four kittens.

The ZOO says Bingwa is just the perfect mom to her five girls and three boys. The ZOO’s curator of mammals and carnivores, Steve Bircher, said: “She has quickly become adept at caring for her very large litter of cubs — grooming, nursing and caring for them attentively.” The mom is on loan from Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon, while the happy dad Jason, age nine, was on loan from White Oak Conservation in Yulee, Florida.

This all might be cute and all, but Bingwa’s accomplishment is actually a far more important one. What is known as Earth’s fastest animal is on its race towards extinction. The estimation puts the number of cheetahs at only 7,100 in the wild. The latest census suggests that these big cats might decline by additional 53 percent in the next 15 years.

Credit to 'stlzootube'.