Cute cubs.

Well as you can probably imagine it's been a rather quiet few days here; everything ticking over nicely but not a lot of action apart that is, from our cubs. They were 4 weeks and 2 days old on Christmas Day and when I checked them on Christmas morning I noticed that one of them had just begun to open his or her eyes. They were just tiny slits with a hint of black behind them but definitely opening! By Friday 28th December three of the cubs had both eyes open, not quite fully round yet but nicely widening slits. Unfortunately the smallest cub, I've mentioned her before, had only just started to open her right eye - a very odd sight. By this morning (Sunday 30th) she had both eyes open but they are still just narrow slits compared to those of her brothers and sisters.

This may or not be significant; it's clear that she is developing at the slowest rate and is around 5 days or so behind her siblings. At the moment all of the cubs suckle from Zephyr and none of them can move around independently. However, all this will change in the next week and if this small cub is pushed to one side at suckling times by her larger and better developed brothers and sisters and always last at feeds when they begin to wean onto solids then she will be in trouble. The question is will Zephyr recognize what is happening and make sure she gets her share or will she leave her to her fate?

Only time will tell but you can be sure that we will intervene if we have to and give her the best possible chance of survival.