Houston Zoo lets cheetahs run free at Dynamo practice field

Houston Zoo Carnivore Supervisor Sara Riger touches one of the zoo's two male cheetahs, Kito and Kiburi later ran off leash at the Houston Dynamo's practice field located at Houston Sports Park Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013, in Houston. Today is International Cheetah Day. less Houston Zoo Carnivore Supervisor Sara Riger touches one of the zoo's two male cheetahs, Kito and Kiburi later ran off leash at the Houston Dynamo's practice field located at Houston Sports Park Wednesday, Dec. ... more Photo: James Nielsen, Houston Chronicle Photo: James Nielsen, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 30 Caption Close Houston Zoo lets cheetahs run free at Dynamo practice field 1 / 30 Back to Gallery

Bet you didn't know today was International Cheetah Day, did you?



In honor of this day -- meant to raise awareness of the care of the big cats -- two male cheetahs from the Houston Zoo visited the Houston Sports Park off Kirby where the Houston Dynamo practice to show off their running skills.



The cheetah boys, Kito and Kiburi, made three runs for cameras, chasing a lure. Of course they were off the leash, which meant that media types were separated from the cats, lest there be a painful mishap.

Sarah Riger, the carnivore supervisor at the Houston Zoo, says that the pair turned 6 in September. The zoo clocked the speed of the cheetahs this morning with a radar gun.



"We clocked Kiburi at 42 miles per hour," says Riger. In the wild, cheetahs can run as fast as 70 miles per hour, though they have no need or room to run that fast in a zoo setting.

Houston Texans owner Bob McNair and his wife Janice were on hand for the cheetah run. Maybe he's looking to sign the pair to help out the Texans on special teams.



The Cheetah Conservation Fund reports that there only 10,000 cheetahs left in the wild, noting in a press release that the cheetah is not only the fastest, but the oldest of all the cats in the big cat family, surviving 3 million years, even through the last Ice Age.