Five cheetah cubs born during lockdown at Colchester Zoo

Colchester Zoo's cheetah has given birth to an "amazing" litter of five cubs, it has been announced.

Sia, a 6-year-old who arrived at the zoo in 2015, went into labour on the evening of Tuesday, 14 April.

The five cubs were born over the space of two hours, and the zoo hope it will be Sia's first successful litter.

A statement from the zoo, currently closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, said: "Sia had given birth to a single cub previously but unfortunately it didn’t survive - it is very common for single off-spring not to survive especially when they are the females first born.

"However, this time round Sia was looking much heavier and so we were confident that she was going to have a much larger litter – but we were not quite expecting 5, which is amazing! The average litter size for Cheetahs is 3-4 cubs."

The cubs are the first born to the father, Abasi, who was brought to the zoo in 2018 with his brother as possible mating partners for Sia.

The new arrivals are not expected to leave their den for several weeks; it takes a fortnight for their eyes to open and four weeks until they are stable on their feet.

Their progress will be monitored by staff using CCTV cameras installed in the den.

The birth comes amid uncertain times for the zoo's directors, who have admitted they "don't know what the future holds" because of the coronavirus closure.

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