FRONT ROYAL, Va. — Five cheetah cubs were born Monday, Oct. 5, at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute campus in Front Royal, and the public can already watch them. The zoo’s Cheetah Cub Cam is live again.
The litter is the first for Zura, a 5-year-old cheetah, the Smithsonian announced Oct. 9. Keepers say she has been an attentive mother and the cubs are active and nursing often. Staff plan to stay hands-off for several weeks so mother and cubs can bond, so the cubs’ sexes have not been announced.
Five healthy cheetah cubs were born Oct. 5 to parents Zura and Flash at the Smithsonian’s conservation campus in Front Royal, Virginia. Credit: Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.
The father is Flash, 9, who has sired seven cubs in earlier litters. As is normal for the species, he plays no part in raising them. The Smithsonian describes Flash as genetically valuable to the North American cheetah population, which means these cubs could become important breeders themselves.
Four generations on one campus
Some cub-cam fans will remember Zura. She was one of five cubs born in October 2021 to first-time mother Rosalie, a litter that was also streamed live. With Zura’s cubs, Front Royal now houses four generations of the same family: great-grandmother Sanurra, grandmother Rosalie, Zura and the new litter.
“Cheetahs are notoriously difficult to breed, and our team pours countless hours into each and every surviving cub,” said Adrienne Crosier, the zoo’s curator of carnivores, who leads the cheetah Species Survival Plan. Having four generations in the zoo’s care, she said, shows the coordinated effort behind preserving an imperiled species.
The Front Royal campus has been producing litters for years; by the Smithsonian’s count, 16 litters were born there between 2007 and 2021. Pairings are not left to chance. The Cheetah Species Survival Plan and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ population management center pick breeding pairs based on genetics, health and temperament, and the zoo is one of 10 U.S. facilities in the Cheetah Breeding Center Coalition.
Why it matters
Fewer than 7,000 cheetahs remain in the wild, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, where they face conflict with people, poaching and the loss of habitat and prey. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the species as vulnerable to extinction.
The Front Royal campus covers about 3,200 acres in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and is not generally open to the public, which makes the den camera the main way to see the cubs. Zura may move her litter around her habitat, so the cubs will sometimes be out of view. Together with the 163-acre National Zoo in Washington, the Smithsonian’s two campuses care for more than 2,200 animals.
Southern Maryland families who want to see animals in person can make the roughly hourlong drive to the National Zoo in Washington, which recently welcomed three red panda cubs and is hosting its Boo at the Zoo Halloween event this month.
