Cincinnati Zoo Debuts Lovely Newborn Cheetahs

曾海华

On March 18， the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden in Ohio showed the first pictures and video of its newest residents — Five cute cheetah cubs. The cute newborns that include three males （boys）， and two females （girls） had to be born through an operation on March 8， because of some medical complications with their mother， five-year-old resident cheetah， Willow.

To give the mother a chance to become well again from the operation， zoo doctors are raising the little cubs inside a special room. This is a difficult task given that the kittens have no active immunity. Thats because cheetahs receive all their immunity in a passive manner through their mothers milk， which they are now unable to get， so any illness can lead to a life problem. According to the zoo officials， while the young cheetahs have stayed living for the first week， it will take a full month for them to be completely out of danger.

With just 9，000 to 12，000 cheetahs left in the wild， the cats are most likely to disappear. To try to increase their numbers， the US-based Cheetah Species Survival Plan （SSP） has asked some zoos across the country to join together to create a cheetah raising program. Not surprisingly， the Cincinnati Zoo is the leader. Its successful caring program has resulted in 73 cheetah cubs — And those numbers do not include the five newborns！ We sure hope all of them make it through the first 30 days.

Vocabulary

resident n. 居住者

complication n. 并发症

immunity n. 免疫

（Do you like animals？ ）