Unlikely friendship: Cheetah cub and puppy paired as adoptive siblings

Cheetah cub Rozi has been pouncing and playing with her brother from another mother after being paired with a puppy for a playmate.

Rozi the cheetah cub has been introduced to a companion puppy named Ziggy who is a labrador-cross-kelpie-cross-collie. Picture: Shallon McReaddie

Who said cats and dogs don’t get on?

Friendship with a cheetah cub is the full-time job of a puppy in Dubbo who seems to have even more energy than the big cat.

Cheetah cub Rozi has been hand-raised at Taronga Western Plains Zoo, and without any siblings, she’s been paired with a labrador-kelpie-collie cross named Ziggy.

Rozi the cheetah cub pictured at three-months-old at Taronga Western Plains Zoo. Picture: Jen Hoar.

The Pair at five-months old. Picture: Shallon McReaddie

Cheetah keeper Jordan Michelmore said cheetah cubs typically “play together, they’ll run around together … stalk each other”.

“Rozi doesn’t have any … cheetah siblings and they’re really important for her development,” she said.

Ziggy has made the perfect match for the five-month-old big cat; the pair were introduced when they were both aged about two months.

Ms Michelmore said “at first Ziggy was quite boisterous and Rozi couldn’t quite match him”.

“He was just very excited to have a new little playmate,” she said.

The pair’s relationship developed as the cub will “stalk Ziggy and pounce on him, he’ll chase her and they’re just having this really playful, friendly relationship now”.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo is part of the international cheetah breeding program and was the first Australasian zoo to breed the vulnerable species. Fewer than 7000 mature cheetahs remain in the wild.