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The Big Cats' Cradle
Tumai, a female cheetah, is one of the first residents of the National Zoo's new Cheetah Science Center in Front Royal, Va.
(By Tracy A. Woodward -- The Washington Post)
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Why the focus on cheetahs?
"Because we have the top people in the world who understand and have that history of working with cheetahs," he said. "And we want to take that as far as we can."
On Thursday, the zoo's team of cheetah experts led a preview tour of the facility and showed off the first lucky residents, who were moved from the National Zoo last month.
Today, in addition to the unveiling ceremony, the research center will host the first day of its annual two-day open house. Hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and admission is $25 a car.
Alas, the cheetahs are off-limits to the public.
Zoo senior scientist David E. Wildt, an expert on cheetah reproduction, said that there are about 250 cheetahs in captivity in North America but that only 22 percent of the females reproduce.
The National Zoo is still home to three other cheetahs: brothers Draco, Granger and Zabini. Although it is likely that they will be sent temporarily to Front Royal for breeding purposes, officials said they intend to keep cheetahs on display at the zoo.
Female cheetahs are solitary in the wild, Wildt said, whereas males congregate in groups called coalitions.
Zazi and Tumai, both of whom have had litters in the past, were reclining in the grass Thursday afternoon in separate large enclosures surrounded by an eight-foot-high chain-link fence.
"They're in heaven," Wildt said.
Asked where the other cheetahs for study would come from, he said: "We're going to have to produce them."
The facility's enclosures are bisected by a "lovers' lane," a walkway along which, in the future, male cheetahs will be paraded before the females.
