Kumbali and Kago's First Snow

January 30, 2016 1:58 PM

Cheetah and dog play in the snow. SLYT, 1:43.

Kumbali and Kago live together at the Metro Richmond Zoo. (Via Richard Simmons's Facebook page.)

Previously: more dogs and cheetahs living together adorably.

posted by asperity (15 comments total)

"I'm a cheetah, and I am puzzled by this frozen sorcery."
"I'm a Labrador, and I don't caaaaaare!"
*tackle*
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:36 PM on January 30, 2016 [5 favorites]

Cheetah: just minding my own business
Dog: I will fight youuuu!
Cheetah: thousand yard stare
posted by zippy at 2:45 PM on January 30, 2016 [4 favorites]

"I am Labrador....LEAF!...LEAF!...Cheetah!"
"I am Cheetah...I can kill you in 1.5 seconds...but SNOW!"
**Pummeled in the snow**
posted by Benway at 2:56 PM on January 30, 2016 [4 favorites]

It gives me the good feels, but I also wonder just how dangerous these things are for everyone involved. I assume the dog and cheetah know each other, but I find it hard to overlook the fact that cheetahs, even those bred in captivity, are wild animals. I'm sure the zookeepers know their animals, but it still seems just a claw swipe or neck bite away from disaster.
posted by mollweide at 3:15 PM on January 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

More about Kumbali and Kago:

Raising puppies and cheetah kittens together helps refocus the big cats’ nervous energy, zoos have discovered.

posted by zinon at 3:25 PM on January 30, 2016 [7 favorites]

Cheetahs aren't super aggressive; as I recall they are relatively delicate compared to other big cats so they don't usually want to tussle if they can avoid it. They've even been tamed as pets at various times in history (though never domesticated.) Notice that the human is also in there rolling around with them, and zoos are usually careful about that if there's any danger. Between that and the dog being raised as a littermate, I doubt there's signficant risk.
posted by tavella at 3:34 PM on January 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

Nice use of the masshysteria tag.
posted by Guy Smiley at 3:37 PM on January 30, 2016 [6 favorites]

Dog: OH MY GOD
Cheetah: This is pretty cool I guess
Dog: HEY
Cheetah: Pretty fun to lay in this stuff
Dog: TAG YOU'RE IT
Cheetah: Is that a hole in the fence over there?
posted by rhizome at 3:53 PM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

One of the Categories of entries at the Archie McPhee's store's blog is "the Department of Unexpected Interspecies Friendship" with many an interesting odd couples, possibly the oddest involving "Timur, a goat who was intended to be live prey for Amur the Siberian tiger, but instead turned out to be the tiger’s new friend in his habitat".
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:17 PM on January 30, 2016 [5 favorites]

Humans have been using cheetahs in hunting since at least Ancient Egypt. They're basically just dogs in catsuits.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:21 PM on January 30, 2016 [8 favorites]

Want more info on cheetahs? Oh, gosh, hurry hurry, ecologist Anne Hillborn has been posting on @realscientists for the last week and the cheetah* photos, facts and stories are GLORIOUS. (You'll have to go/scroll all the way back to Jan 24th to see a lot of the pics, but it is fully worth it.)

*and lion, hyena, etc.
posted by synapse at 7:08 PM on January 30, 2016 [4 favorites]

The best part of the video is undoubtedly when the dog pulls a Dug and deserts the cheetah in favor of chasing a leaf.
posted by Hermione Granger at 8:23 PM on January 30, 2016 [6 favorites]

I love the moment of the dog chasing the cheetah. good luck little buddy
posted by you're a kitty! at 10:48 PM on January 30, 2016

To get around this issue, researchers have enlisted the only other creatures that care as much about a female cheetah's estrus cycle as they do: male cheetahs.
posted by sebastienbailard at 1:00 AM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

Of course...! Everyone knows furry critters and cheetahs love to play together!
posted by markkraft at 10:14 AM on January 31, 2016