OT: Cheetah and dog friends celebrate anniversary at Busch Gardens

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

This was too cool not to share. From Orlando Attractions Magazine...

Cheetah and dog friends celebrate anniversary at Busch Gardens

Apr 192012 Filed under: Busch Gardens Posted by: Anthony Armenia

It may seem like an unlikely pair, but its been a year since Busch Gardens Tampa park guests got to see an 8-week-old male cheetah cub and 16-week-old female yellow labrador puppy play together. They were first revealed to guests on Monday, April 16, 2011. Busch’s animal experts expect their friendship to last a lifetime.

The pair, who were later named Kasi (cheetah) and Mtani (dog), spent only supervised play times together at first. Now, a year later, they live together full time at the park’s Cheetah Run habitat and even travel together to schools, events and more as animal ambassadors.

Park guests can see Kasi and Mtani daily at Cheetah Run, where they spend a portion of each day playing together, training with their keepers and exercising with the habitat’s lure system which encourages them to run.

Although this is Busch Gardens’ first cub-and-puppy combo, it is not uncommon in the zoological community for a single cheetah to be raised with a canine companion. Only approximately 12,400 cheetahs remain in the wild and they are on the U.S. Endangered Species Act list of threatened species.

Check out this video celebrating their anniversary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndlf5_L5gsE

http://attractionsmagazine.com/blog/2012/04/19/cheetah-and-dog-friends-celebrate-anniversary-at-busch-gardens/#more-12437

[stefa70 205]

:heart: Love these kind of things Mo!!

[Judy in Texas 150]

They do this at the San Diago Zoo also. It is so cool. Thanks for posting. :D