Meeting Baby Cheetah For First Time And It Was Emotional

We're at the Cincinnati Zoo right now and what is about to happen is something that I have basically saved myself for I guess somehow. Somehow it's never happened. We are going to meet my favorite species of animal ever and I'm like I'm kind of getting kind of worked up right now. I'm not going to like relax. I'm a little excited and I actually wore a specific shirt for this encounter. This is a vintage cheetah shirt. I'm really excited. I've been saving this shirt specifically for this encounter. I'm getting very like excited, nervous and the dogs just are running around so I'm ready. Let's just do this and I'm done. I'm psyching myself up too much. I'm just going to put my mask on because it's a cat. A susceptible, close to susceptible animal so all right. I'm talking too much. Let's just do this. Hold on. Do you want to do it again or do you want to? No, I'm just hyperventilating. Okay. Okay, Emily. Okay. There she is. Oh my goodness. She's so fast. Look at her. Look at her go. So, hi. Hi. Hello. How's it going? Great. How are you? I'm pretty good. So, this is Andy, you guys. One of the keepers here at Cincinnati Zoo and one of the ambassadors. What's your actual title? Cat ambassador senior trainer. Senior trainer. So, one of the main trainers slash zoo keepers. Emily over there. She's, you know, she doesn't have a mic on but she's also one of the, you just officially got a job. Awesome. Awesome. Very cool. So, hey, we're in here with Rosie, one of the cheetahs here. She is how old? Six months old? She is almost seven months old. Almost seven months old. Yes. So, she is a little cute little kitty. Yes. She's learning how to be an ambassador. We'll walk and talk. Okay. Andy, what are your favorite cheetah facts? So, cheetahs are the fastest animal on land. They can go zero to 60 miles per hour in just 3.4 seconds. So, no other animal can outrun them. They are uniquely built for speed. Everything you see about a cheetah's adaptation helps it to be incredibly fast. So, they have a flexible spine that will actually allow them to kind of get a longer stride. It acts almost like a spring so that they can even have a longer stride. They have semi-retractable claws so it's different than your other big cats that you think of like tigers and lions. They're always out so they're actually very similar to dog claws. They act as built-in running cleats so the cheetah can run at a moment's notice. They also have a really long tail that is flat but not like a pancake. It's flat on the side so it acts like the rudder of a boat so that they can make really sharp turns when they're chasing their prey. They also have excellent vision. That's their main sense that they use when they're trying to get as close to their prey as they can. They can see for up to three miles in perfect detail. Oh, wow. So, incredible vision. They all are sprinters, not marathon runners. So, a cheetah can reach up to 70 miles per hour but they can only do that for about a minute and then they're gonna have to rest for a couple hours before they can reach those top speeds. Female cheetahs tested this because it actually has not been tested before and yay science. I wanted to know if girls were actually faster than boys and I partnered with the Columbus Zoo because they also have a running program up there and I recorded the speeds of all of their cheetahs and all of our cheetahs over a couple months and definitively proved it. So, we have the fastest cheetah currently is Catherine who lives here at our zoo. She was clocked at 61 miles an hour in this yard. Yeah. All right. You can come closer. Yeah. Okay. Right here. And you can pet her on her back. Oh, I can? Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Hi. You can't see. Like, you're here. You're on here. What? People are gonna ask this question, um, I'm sure. What's the whole deal with the companion dogs? What is the whole deal with that? Yeah. So, the cheetahs that come to be in our ambassador program were not able to be raised by their mom. So, this happens in Africa where if mom only has a single cub often she'll not produce enough milk and she'll go breed again so then she can have a higher success rate next time which makes sense like evolutionarily but still happens in zoos on occasion. So, you'll have cheetahs a lot of first-time moms that only have one cub. So, we know that mom's probably not gonna raise it. So, preemptively what we will do is we will take it into an ambassador program so it can be hand raised. Now, we want to make sure that our cheetahs also still have that companionship that they would have had if they had siblings and there's not a lot of extra cheetahs to put pair together. Sometimes we're able to do that. So, the cheetah SSP will if there's a singleton that's born say in Washington DC. This actually happened last year. There was a singleton born there and there was also a litter in a wildlife safari in Oregon. So, they took the single cub flew it to Oregon and put it in with that litter which is really awesome. So, we want to do that first but if that is not an option then they will come live in an ambassador program and so we want to make sure they're still able to play and get all of that good energy out but since we don't have a cheetah for them we get them a dog. Dogs are actually really great playmates for cheetahs. They have really similar energy and play styles and it also is really important when we're doing like training and stuff that for our young cats have a ton of energy. We want them to play with the dogs and not like that with the people because we teach them from a young age what is acceptable to interact with humans. It might be cute when she's little like this for her to jump on you and bite you. It's not cute when she's 80 pounds. So, she knows she can play and communicate with her dog just like she would with her siblings but with us humans it's a little different. So, the dog is a really important part of our training process as well. So, yeah. And people have to realize that these are not pets. No. They're with the dogs. The dogs are, you know, a domesticated species. Yes. These cheetahs are not. They are not. Speaking of the dogs. Yes. The dogs have a very important role. Dogs are awesome. They can do a ton of different conservation work and a bunch of different jobs but yeah they are not pets for sure. That's something we always talk about. The only cat you should have as a pet in your home is the domestic house cat. So, what is it like working with the cheetahs here at Cincinnati? It is amazing. I definitely say that I have a dream job here for sure especially being able to raise them to be ambassadors. Cincinnati is unique because it's one of the only places in the world where you can actually see cheetahs running. So, it's really fun to be able to raise ambassadors so that they can grow up to run in this really big running field. So, that's kind of what we're doing right now. Some of this training we're using these like, you know, balls at the end of a string. It's kind of that starting training to get her endurance up so that when she's full grown she'll be running top speeds in here. The thing that I also really love about this job and this program as well is we, you know, we do all the keeper work. We have the training, the relationships with the animals which is obviously incredible and something I love but I also love the education side. We have these big bleachers. We do a ton of programming and educational content about how we are trying to help save the cheetah and other wildlife around the world as well or even just in our backyard. We do a lot of great stuff in Ohio to help out with local wildlife here. So, it's really fun to have that education side but also the zookeeping slash training side. So, it's like the perfect job. So, Andy is looking at my dream job. So, Andy and I actually first met on social media We met in person in 2019. Yeah, so probably before that. This is before that, right? So, I've been very jealous of her. She's also on social media. Andy Panda. She does a lot of cool interpretation, you know, about cheetahs and just animals in general. Rosie is current baby. Current baby. Chris was the baby a couple years ago. Yes, you got to see her full grown ambassador running today which is awesome. She was running today. That was really awesome and Remus was Chris's companion dog. Remus is actually famous. Yes, he was on a show on Disney Plus. And Moose actually. Moose was on there too. And then their cheetahs were on there. That's awesome. So, Rosie is six months old and she weighs how much would you say? She's probably about 40 pounds right now. Yeah, her and the dog weigh about the same right now, I'd say. I mean, we definitely saw and who's her companion dog? This is Daisy, her companion dog. We actually adopted her from the same shelter where we adopted Remus. Oh, nice. Yeah. So, I mean, you can obviously see we all know what cheetahs are built for. They're both that speed, right? Yes. We saw Rosie and she came out. She shot straight out of here and into the other area. Have you, obviously you guys haven't, have you guys tried to run her yet? Oh, we have. We've done kind of little like smaller runs for her to kind of get her used to it. But cheetahs aren't fully grown until they're about two years old anyways. So, we want to make sure that we're not pushing her too much while she's still got her growing bones and stuff like that and all those muscles. So, we don't actually run them on a full lure like this until they're about a year and a half old. So, we just kind of slowly build up to it over time. And we don't really have to teach them like how to chase after the lure. It's like, as you can see, a very natural instinct for them to do it. They really want to keep it. So, we have to have a really good relationship with them so that they'll trade it for us for some treats and tasty food. And then also be okay with us being around them and sharing space, which is part of the training we're doing here as well. So, it might look like this is just all a lot of fun, which it is, but it's also a training as well through the whole process of her growing up to be an ambassador. How long have you worked here at Cincinnati? I've been here for five and a half years now. Five years. Yeah. So, what got you into animal care? What was the driver for you? I've always had a love of outdoors and wildlife. Loved Lion King growing up. So, I always wanted to have a trip to Africa. And then I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian. I ended up doing a veterinary internship in South Africa and worked at a place with cheetahs there. Fell in love with cheetahs. So, I was like, oh, okay. Well, maybe I want to work with animals instead of being a veterinarian instead. So, I kind of had a career change moment. I was still in college at the time. Started working at a local zoo that did kind of like ambassador work and stuff like that. They also partnered with the Columbus Zoo, which is where I learned about ambassador cheetah programs. So, I didn't know that that was a thing. And I was like, that sounds like the dream job. I want to do that. Was applying to jobs all over the place once I graduated college and ended up getting one down at the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas doing ambassador work there. We did stage shows. We traveled to schools. Did a lot of different educations. Stuff like that. Yeah, I worked there for a couple years before this position opened up and I applied here. And to be honest, just kind of did it on a whim. I did not think I was going to get the job because it's very competitive and there are not that many cheetah trainers in the world. Right. So, I was not expecting a lot, but I guess they liked me. So, it worked out and I've been here ever since. Can you explain the bond that you have with the animals, like specifically with cheetahs like Rosie or Chris? Yeah. So, Chris was actually the first cheetah that I got to hand raise and be the primary trainer for. So, when I was raising her, I was with her all the time and we developed a really close relationship. And then as I was training her to do programs and educational stuff like that, you really have to have a really high level of trust. The cheetah with the person and also the person with the cheetah. So, you develop that really close relationship with them. And so, they'll trust you when you're in a new space or we're going on a walk around the zoo before the zoo opens or something like that. So, I have a very, very close relationship with her and that makes it very exciting when I get to show her off and see these amazing adaptations that she's doing, how she's such a great runner out at the farm and stuff like that. And then most of our cheetahs, though, are really great with all of our trainers. So, we do have to, there's like a learning curve when we do have a new trainer. You do have to spend a lot of time getting to develop that relationship with the cat so that they do trust you and they see you as someone that's going to bring them comfort. So, that's a lot of the training as well. So, we want to make sure that all of our cats are always comfortable and our trainers are always comfortable as well. And that's what's always fun about our relationship with them as well is because we get to work on that. And oftentimes that's, you know, spending time with them or even reading a book to them. Just them hearing your voice and spending time with them is something that really will mean a lot to a cheetah and it will eventually blossom into a really cool relationship. So, what do you love about your job? I love that we're able to allow people to come to the zoo and see a cheetah running. Not everybody gets to go to Africa to see cheetahs, but you get to see it every day here at Cincinnati Zoo and it's one of the most remarkable things in the world. So, I love that I can share that. I'm having an amazing time here just being around the cats and obviously the dogs are hilarious, but I have not been this close to a cheetah before and they're my favorite animal. Somehow I haven't had that and I'm in heaven. Yay! Andy, thank you so much. I'm so happy to have you. You guys, so we just met Rosie and again that's my first time meeting a cheetah. My first cheetah encounter. I didn't, like, I had, like, I was very, like, really speechless out there in the yard behind me. I kind of didn't really know what to say. Like, I was being very monotone because I was just, like, I'm, like, you know, I'm pretty sure this is going to hit me later on, but that was, um, a very magical experience for me, uh, because it's, like, I think there's just so much build-up because I've never met one. It's my favorite animal. There's just all this stuff going on in my life, in my head, and so that was a very meaningful, um, encounter and I'm very, like, quiet right now because I'm, like, I feel a little shaken, but now we have to go meet the next animal, so let's go do that and, um, decompress. Let's go.