Captive cat produces no cubs

CHEETAH are notorious for their apparent inability to breed in captivity. When Autumn, one of the resident female cheetah at Emdoneni Cat Sanctuary near Bushlands, fell pregnant in 2013, there were celebrations all round.

Although Autumn’s pregnancy was confirmed by two independent vets, it turned out to be a phantom pregnancy. What would have been the first cheetah cub to be born in captivity in KwaZulu-Natal in 20 years was too good to be true.

Months later, Autumn’s still swollen belly gives her a ‘chubby’ appearance, but still there are no cubs.

The owners at Emdoneni are worried that she is unable to conceive and are currently waiting for the results of fertility tests. Should the tests reveal a problem, Emdoneni has a contingency plan which involves purchasing two new female cheetah.

The poaching of all spotted cats, however, has lowered the availability of cheetah and increased the price. The result is a fund-raising drive in the hope two new cheetah can be purchased.

Apart from giving fresh hope of cheetah cubs at Emdoneni, and keeping alive an endangered species, new cheetah would help to broaden the species’ gene pool.

Emdoneni’s serval population, on the other hand, is having no problem breeding in captivity, resulting in two adults soon to be released into one of the region’s game reserves.

In October 2013 one of the younger female servals rejected her first kitten, which was then hand-reared. Now, at three months of age, Summer has adjusted and is coping well on her own. At the appropriate age she, too, will be released into a nearby game reserve.

At almost one year of age, the serval kitten Cenessa, named after Zululand Observer’s own late Cenessa Stork, and her sibling are growing up well and are set to be kept for breeding purposes.

The newest addition to Emdoneni’s serval population is Amuhle, a one-month-old kitten still trying to find her feet. An instinctively highly protective mother unfortunately wouldn’t allow her offspring to be caught on camera.