Cheetah Rather Encounter Friend Than Play With Cat Toys A Box How Captive BIG CATS Get Enriched

Enriching the lives of captive cheetahs can be a challenge as they grow older, but as cubs they develop and entertain themselves on their own. It's easy to entertain them when they're young because everything's interesting. Running and grappling are key survival practices for developing cheetah cubs. It's natural for all baby predators and doesn't need encouragement. Not only does it help control their bite strength between their siblings and mom, it prepares them for a future where they must use those skills to hunt prey. This is a cheetah breeding and rewilding project. My intent is to release some of my cheetahs back into the wild. I need to retain breeders and those that cannot be released. Like ones handicapped, too old, or have genetic aberrations that shouldn't be released. They have display. He must be a coalition brother. Came from the um, Johannesburg Zoo. Donation to uh, Running Wild Conservation. Care for him, they've done a great job caring for him. He looks great. Maturity sets in and there's a limit to the things that entertain them. They generally like the things that cats do, but the chase game is the most important for survival reasons. It starts young and follows them through adulthood. Here's me playing the ring toss game with Gabriel when he was eight months old. Get it! Today, I can barely get Gabriel to raise a paw at a toy. All right, so more than a general sense, Gabriel does not like toys. I've tried, uh, everything in his life with many things, but I'm gonna try this here. It's a little rope on a stick. What's that? What is that, buddy? Get it, Gabriel. Get it, buddy. The average cat stuff he's just not into, you know. He's very, very an adult, very much an adult cheetah. I mean, he doesn't, it's very, very hard to, uh, enrich him like this, you know. By this time, his, his life, he's out hunting and surviving, you know, and he's still got his instincts. He does. All right, Gabriel, it's, it's A for effort, buddy, huh? For me, I'm trying to enrich you. Very, very hard to enrich Gabriel's life, uh. He's purring. In a truly positive way. I'm gonna pull over Gabriel here, see if he likes it. Not impressed. Gabriel, get it. Well, inevitably, someone will say, well, you're supposed to be chasing antelope in the wild, not toys in a cage. Good boy. Those who follow my channel know Gabriel can't be released because of a serious malformation of his spine. And besides, Gabriel has never hunted before and seems to ignore his instincts. No, he didn't like it. One day we gave him a cold rabbit and he didn't know what to do with it. And in fact, he ignores most all animals except for people and cheetahs. Not much of an encounter. Gabriel does enjoy sniffing things. Various scents, new things, cheetah pee, and the foul stench. It's one of the ways he identifies things, even me. All right, so what I got here is not your ordinary tissue. This is one of Gabriel's girlfriend's, basically, rear end wipe. Look at that. That's delicious, delectable. Put his nose and face right in it. Yummy. Yummy, yummy, yummy, huh? This is a wipe from Sakura. It's testing to see if Sakura is receptive or not for breeding. So Gabriel will generally tell. If she was, Gabriel would go crazy right now with all kinds of chirping and carrying on. Now, I tried something different to enrich Gabriel. Cats are supposed to love boxes. I wanted to see if Gabriel and Abby do. All right, I'm going to drag this box I made for Gabriel and Abby. Abby will walk right past it and anything. It was like the matrix to her, part of the environment. So she had no interest in it at all. Just walked on by looking for food. Almost bite my hand, you know, almost biting my hand, hand feeding her. Anyway, what is that? What is that, buddy? Box. This thing's in my way. I'm coming to see you. What is that? Oh, I'd rather come see you. I'd rather come see you. Hello. I got you a box, brother. God, I got you. He says, you bring me food? You bring me food? You bring me food or you? What tastes better? Yeah, what tastes better? I got you a box, buddy. What do you think about that box? No, he says, no, I'd rather come see you. Oh, that's so sweet. Yeah, that's very, very sweet. I'd rather come see you. Okay, let me get situated. There we go. Oh, that's sweet. You'd rather see me. Yeah. Oh, bite my ear. See that? Some cheetahs will grab your entire ear and just kind of suckle on it. Gabriel likes the little lobes of it. But no, the box thing, he didn't work. Look at that. I was hoping he'd like step in there at least, you know. Yeah, buddy. Yeah, I got you a box. Yeah. So the box thing, I anticipated that. I was like, he's not gonna be interested in that. He wasn't. So I'll try. I'll try. Maybe he's another cheetah. I like it. Maybe another cat. Grooming me is one of Gabriel's favorite things to do. It's the kind of things I do for Gabriel's pleasure. He loves it. So it's a very instinctive behavior Gabriel's doing. As a cub, my earlobe is, I theorize, my earlobe is like a nipple on a cheetah mom. And all these cheetahs, it brings them back to their cub hood. First of all, Gabriel likes me. You know, it's like grooming me. He doesn't groom anybody he doesn't like. He doesn't purr for anybody he doesn't like. But there's also, I'm gonna show you how my ear, it's hairy. Look, see that? For whatever reason, my genetics has hair on my ears. I got this way before I knew cheetahs. It's not like an adaptation. But hey buddy. I also have hairy arms just the way I am. Neanderthal. So I don't cut my ear hair when I come see Gabriel and these cheetahs because I know they like it. Cheetahs like to groom hair. It's instinctive for them. That's why he likes my arm because it's very hairy. He feels it in his tongue. My ear too. It's just an enjoyable thing to him. He loves it. So this is my enrichment for him. I fixed this box here for him thinking I can enrich him. But I'm the one that enriches him. No, me. It's me. Which is nice though too. Yeah, Gabriel. Oh buddy, I tried to give you something a little different enrichment. Huh, buddy? A little bit of different. With this box. He didn't like this box. So he didn't like the box. Huh, buddy? Oh, so nice to have Gabriel happy. It makes me happy for sure. If I can make you happy by licking on me and Gabriel, absolutely that's what I'm going to do. In a forthcoming video, I'll explain in detail why cheetahs love to groom so much. So it's up to me to keep Gabriel happy. Now I've known Gabriel for nine years and the happiest he gets is when he's interacting with me. So I'll keep trying to enrich his life until the end. Enriching the lives of captive animals comes down to the individual. Yeah, common species have common similar interests but that varies between individuals. The key is to find out what positive experience that animal likes and focus on that. So Gabriel looks real good. Smells good. Bye Gabriel. 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