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Decatur Zoo Welcomes Pair of Cheetahs

Karamash
/
flicker via Creative Commons

  The Scovill Zoo in Decatur is celebrating the arrival of two cheetah brothers. It's the first time the central Illinois zoo has had new cheetahs in 13 years. 

Cheetahs Segosi and Kapenda come to Decatur from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia. They lived there for the first 2 1/2 years of their lives. The cheetahs arrived in Decatur on Thursday, and the zoo held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate on Saturday. The zoo already has one cheetah, 14-year-old Jafari, whose brother Runako died in September. Those cheetahs arrived at the zoo in 2003 from South Africa. For now, Jafari is being kept in a separate area behind the main cheetah exhibit while he interacts with the new cheetahs through a fence.

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