Cheetahs get teeth into new feeding-time fun
In their native habitat on the African plains these majestic and beautiful big cats are lean, mean killing machines, capable of speeds of up to 70mph.
However, they’ve been lounging around too much at the wildlife park with TV-style dinners, so staff decided it was time to lick them into shape.
Yesterday a new electronically-operated overhead cable was put through its paces at a special compound in the park, and as soon as it revved up the cheetahs sprang to life. Attached to a cable was a lump of horse meat which ‘dashed’ up and down the run, tempting the cats into action.
As it swung overhead three female cheetahs, Imbe, Tombe and Zulu performed acrobatic leaps to get a slice of the action, much to the delight of a large crowd which had gathered to watch the occasion.
Imbe and Tombe managed to grab off chunks of meat, but the aptly-named Zulu showed warrior like tenacity holding onto the ball of meat and at times bringing the cable to a halt.
Even when the power was turned up, the cheetah hung on with grim determination, while jealously guarding her prize against the other three-year-old cats with numerous swipes of the paw when they got too close.
Fota Wildlife Park’s director, Dr Neil Stronach, said staff were delighted to provide the powerful animals with such a fantastic facility. It is only the second wildlife park in Europe to have cable feeding and it was sponsored by businessman Michael O’Flynn, managing director of O’Flynn Construction.
“Cheetahs are naturally extremely fast and fit cats and they can now be seen doing what they do best, with the introduction of our new cheetah run,” Dr Stronach said.
Mr O’Flynn got a chance to operate the cable and clearly revelled in it as much as the cheetahs. “This is a marvellous facility and I’m very pleased to be involved in the project,” he said. The businessman quipped that he had a company in Britain called Tiger Developments, so he already had “an association with big cats”.
Fota’s cheetah-breeding programme, founded in 1984, is one of the world’s best and many of the 181 cats born there have been sent to centres in other countries.
There are currently 17 cheetahs in Fota; it’s estimated there are between 9,000 and 12,000 wild.
nwww.fotawildlife.ie Feeding time in the new compound will be 4pm daily.
