Colchester Zoo has welcomed five new cheetah cubs to its family.

Bosses have announced female cheetah Sia successfully gave birth to her first litter of cubs on Tuesday evening.

Sia has previously given birth to a single cub but it was sadly unable to survive.

Sia had successfully mated with male cheetah Abasi 92 days ago and despite zookeepers being confident of a successful pregnancy, they admit they were not expecting so many cubs to be born.

The average litter size for cheetahs is three to four.

In a statement posted on its website, the zoo said: "We installed cameras into the cheetah den so we could record the birth and so we can easily monitor the health of the cubs and ensure Sia is managing with the five of them.

"So far all seems well but with such a large litter to look after things may change in the coming days.

"We hope that all five will survive and thrive, nature always surprises us with what it can achieve."

Sia's litter is said to be the third largest to be successfully born among big cats at the zoo in the past year.

In June 2019, three endangered Amur tiger cubs, Mischa, Pasha and Tatana, were born. Two critically endangered Amur leopard cubs, Luka and Lena, were meanwhile born in September 2019.

A spokesman for the zoo added: "This is amazing news for conservation and we’re very pleased that we are helping to contribute to the survival of these magnificent species via the breeding programmes."

"The development of cheetah cubs is similar to that of other big cats and their domestic cousins in that it takes around two weeks for their eyes to open and four weeks until they become more stable on their feet.

"It will be a number of weeks until they are big and strong enough to begin emerging from their den and this will also be determined by Sia, when she is comfortable and confident for them to start making an appearance outside.

"We’ll be sure to keep you up to date with their development and progress over the next few weeks."