Mosi and Jelanie, the first two cheetah cubs ever born in Quebec, made their online debut in a video posted to the Parc Safari Facebook page on Thursday.
The two male cubs were delivered by caesarian section on May 13 at Parc Safari in Hemmingford, around 70 kilometres south of Montreal.
According to the zoo, the cubs' mother Akeelah, didn't recognize the cubs and became aggressive in their presence, so the cubs were separated from her in order to keep them safe.
The cubs are all the more remarkable because breeding cheetahs in captivity is very difficult, Parc Safari says.
Mosi and Jelanie, the first two cheetah cubs ever born in Quebec, were delivered by caesarean section on May 13. They were introduced online in a video posted to the Parc Safari Facebook page on Thursday. (Parc Safari)
Cheetahs have a high rate of inbreeding, according to the Cheetah Conservation Fund, because of a mass extinction of large mammals about 12,000 years ago.
As a result, the genetic diversity of the big cats was greatly reduced, leading to trouble breeding and a high rate of mortality among their cubs. In the wild, 75 per cent of cheetah cubs die before reaching their first birthday.
The cubs' mother, Akeelah, came to Parc Safari in December of 2016 along with another female, Cleo, in an exchange with the Toronto Zoo.
Mosi and Jelanie were born about seven days prematurely, which Parc Safari is about the equivalent of a human baby being born one month premature.
For the first weeks, the cubs were kept in an incubator with around-the-clock care.
The cubs won't be visible to the public at Parc Safari before the beginning of September because the zoo wants to wait for their immune systems to develop fruther.
