Lonely Cheetah Cub at Australian Zoo given puppy company

A cheetah cub in an Australian zoo has found an unlikely new best friend!

Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubo, Australia announced On Monday July 28, that their only cheetah kid named Rozi had a companion to make her feel less alone.

According to the zoo, Rozi (which means Rose in Swahili) was born in February via an acute caesarean section to his mother, Siri, who lives in the same zoo.

Although Siri eventually recovered from birth, Cheetah-mom could not produce any milk for her kid and Rozi was moved to the intensive care that resulted in Rozi being heightened by human care providers.

“Rozi has no cheetah siblings and cheetah cubs normally play together, hunt, puncture, groom and stalk each other. All these behaviors are important milestones for a growing cheetah -ung to learn,” said zookeeper Jordan Michelmore.

Now, about five months old, Rozi has a certain animal company, although it comes from an unlikely source-a black labrador-Kelpie-Collie mix named Ziggy.

“We started introducing Rozi and Ziggy when they were both just over two months old, and at first Ziggy was pretty funny and excited to have a new little play friend,” Michelmore said.

“The couple has now become best friends and it has been beautiful to see their relationship develop. Through it, Rozi can develop the same behavior with Ziggy as she would otherwise have done with real siblings,” Keeper added. “So Ziggy provides that kind of pseudo-sibling relationship for her.”

“They match each other so well with their energy level, the kind of game they do and their size,” Michelmore also told New researcher. “Dopyness, the easier and the looseness of a puppy seems to match Rozi pretty good for this stage of life.”

This is not the first time a zoo experimented with spending time with their big cats with dogs. A number of organizations all over the world have raised kids and puppies together For friendship, including San Diego Zoo, which was groundbreaking on the idea more than three decades ago – and Rozi’s mother, Siri, have also had a dogmate.

In 2015, Siri was bred together with a retriever mastiff mix named Iris. The couple lived together for a year and a half, when Keepers tried to recreate the family structure that female cheetahs experience – to live with their mother and siblings for 12 to 18 months before spreading.

According to the zoo, this form of friendship between female cheetahs and dogs can help them become even better breeders in the future.

“We found with Siri, when we started to put her in with men, she had that trust, she had that resilience and she had the socialization that really improved her breeding behavior,” said Michelmore.

Keepers hopes that Rozi will be able to follow her mother’s footsteps, and with 12 to 18 months old she will be ready to spread and eventually have some own kids.

“We just take our clues from them, and when she doesn’t really want to spend so much time with him, we can start performing him,” Michelmore told The New scientist.

“It really feels full circle now that Siri has had a kid, beautiful Rozi, and now Rozi has been introduced to a puppy too,” she added.

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Breeding is one of the most important aspects of the Zoo’s Cheetah program, as the big cats are considered vulnerable in nature. Less than 7,000 mature cheetahs are left in nature, the zoo reports and every birth, including those in zoos, counted to the global population – “So programs like Ziggy’s friendship plays a key role to help Cheetahs survive.”

“Rozi really has, really valuable and important genetics and will hopefully play a role in our breeding program in the future,” Michelmore said.

When it comes to puppy ziggy, dog lovers should not fear. Zoo says a happy keeper will assume the male puppy when his time with Rozi is up – and Michelmore told New researcher That she is even considering taking Ziggy home.

“With Ziggy, we try to raise him to be a well-rounded, socialized, safe, independent dog, but he also has a really important job to do-he helps Rozi develop,” added Michelmore. “He really seems to be the best dog for the job.”