This golden retriever mum adopted two leopard cubs and it's too adorable

Two leopard cubs have been adopted by a golden retriever who is now caring for them like they’re her own.

The newborns were separated from their natural mother, Alyena, after she’d previously eaten her other cubs.

Keepers at Sadgorod Zoo in the city of Vladivostok in south-eastern Russia’s Primorsky Krai region thought it would be safer for the cubs to grow up with a different mother figure.

At first, they placed them with a goat named Manya, who had recently given birth to her own kids.

But the cubs didn’t take to Manya, forcing the zoo keepers to look elsewhere.

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Tessi, a golden retriever, had also just given birth but was happy to take on the mothering role again.

Luckily, the cubs took to her straight away.

And, from the way they crawl all over her and nuzzle at her teats, the little leopards clearly feel at home with their new mum.

Zoo director Alena Asnovina revealed one of the cubs had heart problems but the other was in perfect health.

The zoo recently shared a video of the unusual family unit on social media, where it is proving popular with animal lovers.

User ‘kittykisu’ said: ‘This is so cute!’, while ‘katy_odinskay’ added: ‘The little one[s] are so adorable.’

Crossing the lines between species appears to be all in a day’s work for keepers at Sadgorod Zoo.

Last week it revealed that its new lion cub, Astra, had become best friends with a young central Asian shepherd dog, called Elsa.