Roy, Sonia, Arlo, Mia, and Cora are the names of the five Northern cheetah cubs who were born on the 10th of August in the Cork Wildlife Park.
Image credits: Sinead Donnachie, Fota Wildlife ParkAnd yes you may have spotted it, two of the five names are inspired by great Cork sports heroes.
The centre appealed for the public’s help in choosing the names and received over 900 name submissions as part of the competition.
The winners, who each received a year-long Conservation annual pass were Faye McNamara from Cork who suggested Arlo, Sadhbh Barry Murphy from Cobh who suggested Roy, Ava Connolly from Dublin who suggested Mia and Noel and Emma O ’Herlihy from Limerick who suggested Sonia.
Julien Fonteneau, Lead Ranger said about the names “We were delighted to receive such a great response from the public to our naming competition. The animal ranger team had our work cut out trying to choose the winners from the huge choice of names.”
“Two of the suggested names were very easy to select. Roy Keane shares the same birthday as the cubs and we felt it was very fitting to name a cheetah, as the fastest land animal, after our local Olympic track medallist, Sonia O’Sullivan.”
Image credits: Sinead Donnachie, Fota Wildlife Park
Image credits: Sinead Donnachie, Fota Wildlife Park
The Northern cheetah subspecies is considered Endangered by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as there are less than 800 left in the wild. A total of 238 cheetahs have been born at Fota Wildlife Park since 1984.
Fota Wildlife Park participates in the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) breeding programmes to conserve the genetic diversity of endangered and vulnerable species, like the cheetah.
Fota Wildlife Park cares for 135 species of which 75 species face the danger of extinction in the wild.
