Some veterinarians work with domestic animals like dogs and cats, but others specialize in exotic animals like those that are held at zoos. One vet became a hero when she saved a mother cheetah and her cubs from an untimely death. The cheetah from The National Zoo was at The Smithsonian Biology Institute Cheetah Science Facility in the Blue Ridge Mountains when the first birth took place. In her cage on May 23, 2012, the cheetah gave birth to one baby without complications. Yet once the cub had arrived, things got a bit scary. The fuzzy, wet, matted baby was born on an unusually frigid day; there was snow falling outside. The enclosure where the mother delivered her cub was unheated.
Ally, the mother cheetah, abandoned her first baby after it was born. This is relatively normal behavior for a cheetah, especially one that is in captivity. The mother seemed disinterested in her new child, and did not clean it off or warm it. The scientists at the institute gave Ally time to move back to her cub, but became increasingly worried that she would not do so. The zoo officials on site were hesitant to intervene, because they wanted the animal to act on her own instincts. Yet it was hovering around freezing outdoors, and they become fearful that the small cub would die of cold.
Often if a human handles a cub, the mother will reject it. Therefore, they tried to avoid treating the animal. When it seemed apparent that Ally wouldn't care for her young, a keeper finally entered the cage. The baby cheetah was unresponsive and frozen. Keepers took the baby to an animal hospital, where he was placed in an incubator. Thankfully, the small kitten recovered from the dangerous ordeal, and is still undergoing recovery at the institute.
After the first little cub was delivered and saved, a vet was sure that the mother cheetah still had more babies to birth. She was still so big. Ally weighed 80 pounds, and had gained an extra 16 since she become pregnant. Cheetahs can give birth to one cub or multiple. Yet if they were there, the little cubs did not emerge from their mother's womb. The cheetah was taken from her cage and placed on an operating table in the veterinarian facility. A vet with the initials C.P. ran her stethoscope over the animal's belly and detected the rapid heartbeats of more cubs inside of their mom. There were more babies to be born.
If C.P. could not deliver the little cheetahs safely, both cubs and mother would die. The realization sparked a dramatic struggle to preserve the four cubs still inside their mother. The delivery process lasted two days. C.P. performed an emergency C-section, while zoo-keepers performed CPR on the four baby cheetahs. Sadly, only two of the tiny cubs survived the ordeal. Both only weighed one pound, and are being steadily nursed to health by veterinarians, nurses, and zoo keepers. The National Zoo showcased the cubs in a press conference a few weeks ago, and explained that they did everything in their power to save the two newborn cubs that didn't make it.
Though they looked a bit scraggly upon delivery, the two little cheetahs who survived are getting along well. They were shown on the news eagerly drinking out of bottles and wriggling about before the cameras. A cheetah biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute says that it was one of the most amazing deliveries she has ever witnessed. She explained that the cubs were very cold when they emerged from their mother's womb, and the staff tried desperately to warm them up. The cheetahs will probably be moved back to The National Zoo once they have recovered, so that the public can visit them and see the miracle babies that almost didn't make it.