Meet our babies!

Five perfect cheetah cubs were born at our Jill Bryden Cheetah Reserve in Oudtshoorn on 20 October 2018 to cheetah-mom Pippa and cheetah-dad, Parker.  They welcomed two girls and three boys who are doing very well! Craig Gouws, Assistant Zoological Manager, and proud Big Cat Zookeeper (a.k.a big cat dad) glowed when asked how he felt about the new litter. “They are all doing so well! I saw their mom born to the Cango family, so it’s a huge privilege seeing her babies healthy, happy and settling in well. They all have big personalities and are uncannily suited to their unique names.”

With less than 7100 cheetahs left in the wild, an international self-sustaining cheetah population in professional and ethical human care is becoming even more important with the continued decrease of animal numbers in the wild. Since 1986, Cango Wildlife Ranch has been pioneers in successful cheetah breeding, and as a facility we focus on breeding to increase the in-situ populace. In layman’s terms, this means we hope to help facilitate the birth of healthy, happy and genetically diverse cheetahs who could one day, should they go extinct in the wild, offer a cheetah-species to rectify and assist the collapsed genetic pool.

Name-finding is a very special time for the staff of Cango Wildlife Ranch, and everyone contributes excitedly to the pool. Our animal care team have the final verdict, as they could easily identify and attribute personality traits to the little ones and therefor have the best discretion when it comes to naming them appropriately.

Our girl cubs were named Thandi, which means ‘loving one’ and Topaz, which means Jewel. Our gentlecubs were respectively named T’Challa, which is based on the hero of Black Panther, The Movie, secondly Troy, a famous foot soldier and lastly Thane, which means warrior. One-month older Thor, sole-cub who required intervention at a very young age, is a brave young’un just as his name implies. He is doing very well now and is being introduced to the five siblings in increments with great success. “With strong names like these, we are excited to see the ripple effect their presence will have on inspiring every visitor we welcome at Cango Wildlife Ranch. They have an immense purpose in the grand scale of teaching the world about the plight of the cheetah, who without the everyones’ help, will not survive ‘the-era-of-mankind” says Mari-Lize Warrington, Marketing Manager.

The first section of our guided tour leads visitors into our Valley of Ancients, where visitors come close to our Large-Flying Foxes, or large bats. They love ‘hanging around’ and if you look closely enough, you’ll be able to spot a baby holding onto his mom for safe-keeping. A short walk down to Cheetahland would take you to our perfect Brown lemur-bundle, who was born to mom Daisy and dad Clyde and is doing exceptionally well. We can’t yet say if he is an official ‘he’ or ‘she’, due to him still clinging very closely to mom Daisy. Only once he (or she) starts moving about on his own, will we be able to determine safely.   

Scientists estimate that we are the last generation who can stop the mass-extinction our planet is facing. The change starts in each individual and that is a massive part of what we relay on our guided tours. Therefore, our new family members are of immeasurable value to every generation who visits us to learn more about them.  Be sure to come meet them and the other amazing animals we house, because it’s within a connection and understanding of our wildlife that your fight for conservation will begin.

Baby Large Flying Fox, holding on to mom

Baby Brown Lemur, not leaving mom for a wee second!