Baby African Cheetah Cubs Hiss Spit Slap Stomp Growl then LOVE Surrogate Mother A Volunteer

This is Abigail and Joyce. They're one-year-old cheetah cubs brought into this world through Caesarean section at Cheetah Experience. They were stillborn when brought out of their mother, along with three other siblings. Miraculously, they were all brought back to life from the skilled and dedicated staff of Cheetah Experience. I saw them when they were just weeks old, but they were still under quarantine. The other three siblings went off to other projects, while Abigail and Joyce remained at Cheetah Experience. They didn't remember me when I interned a year later, and it showed. They did not like me. But let me show you something special about cheetah cubs and their defense mechanisms. In this incredible video, Dew, who is not their mother, meets the cubs for the first time. They don't know her, see her as a threat, and act defensively. Even Dew appears defensive. The cubs are about two months old in this video. There's a fine line between a cheetah becoming aggressive versus defensive. Cheetah cubs are not very strong and highly vulnerable to predation, so they have defense mechanisms to ward off threats. Typically, when you see a cheetah baring its teeth and hissing, spitting, growling, swatting, and slapping, it's because they're afraid, and rightly so. They're not top predator in the wild and lose battles to equal and larger sized predators. The average person or animal might shy away from seeing a cheetah reacting like this, but I know it's a result of fear and mistrust rather than aggression. Knowing these cubs' behaviors are defensive in nature rather than aggressive, watch how quickly I gain the trust of these two fearful cheetah cubs. Being in a prone position is an absolute de-escalation of all tension, watch. See, here I am. Curiosity, curiosity comes. They're just cubs, you know, they're afraid. Yeah, let's go purr now, listen. From hiss and spit to purr, and mainly because I'm in a prone position here. Watch, they'll come over. See that? Reach up. All I gotta do is get them to lick me. I'll have them. You see that? Isn't that amazing? They're just young cubs, you know, that's what they do when they, in the wild, hiss and spit to protect themselves from the unknown. They don't know me real well, I've only, I've only, this is the first time I've been up on top of this deck with them. See, I can actually pet her now. Realize I'm not, I'm not foe, I'm friend. But you gotta do this, uh, over and over and over again. And then, uh, then you'll, then you'll have them on your side. You know, they're just young cubs, you know, they don't know any different, you know, they just, they have an instinct to protect themselves. And then you show no threat. Oh, these are hand raised too, that's different. The wild one will be different. You probably couldn't do this with a wild one, but for a, uh, a tame one that's been tamed by humans, yeah. And we're all friends again. Isn't that cool? See? And we're, uh, we're friends again. I stay low. I don't want you on my camera. Get my tripod. I'm just gonna crowl at it. I accept my gear to be chewed on and damaged. It happens. See, look at that, isn't that amazing? You can step in front position and you get purrs and licks, and I can touch them. And let her groom my face. Look at that. Ready to, ready to strike me, strike me down, now licks my forehead. That's just so cool. They're just, they're just babies. What if I walked up to them and tried doing this? I'd, I'd be bleeding, bleeding, with serious damage to my hands. I think it's so cool. Purring. I've breached the fear by, uh, submission, non-hostility, non-aggression, and slow motion, slow action. You can gain their, gain their trust. See, they're both purring. That's what a cheetah whisperer does. It gains the, uh, confidence of insecure, fearful cheetahs. Later that evening, I laid out in the grass with them, further sealing our trust between us. I discovered Joyce likes chewing ears. Many a cheetah does it, even adults. I think it's both an affectionate and instinctive behavior, something they would naturally do when suckling on their mother. They like my goatee. Well, there's the other one. This is Joyce here. In the wild, they would still be with their mother at this age. In this case, it's not possible due to the surgery of their mother. Their mother was retired to another project once she fully recovered from her surgery. It's the main reason they come to me, and how I easily won them over. These insecure cheetah yearlings were looking for a surrogate mother, and I was happy to fulfill that role, even for a little while. I spent quality days and nights enriching both our lives while interning at Cheetah Experience. Due to their unnatural births and lack of colostrum and mother's milk, they have some medical issues. Both have some developmental growth problems. Abigail and Joyce are legally owned by another project. Cheetah Experience is trying to buy them so they can remain under their care. Cheetah Experience is a registered non-profit cheetah breeding center. They operate exclusively by donations, albeit money or product. If you'd like to help Joyce and Abigail and their medical costs, they set up a global giving fund in their name. At the end of this video and in the description field, you'll find the global giving fundraiser link for Abigail and Joyce. If you can afford it, please consider donating something on their behalf. It will be greatly appreciated. On the behalf of Cheetah Experience, Joyce, Abigail, and myself, we thank you. One plastic possibly entertaining. If you like this video, please share it and give a thumbs up and consider joining my channel. Join my coalition and subscribe.