Story at a glance
- Five cheetah cubs were born at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute Tuesday morning.
- The cubs were delivered by SCBI’s 5-year-old cheetah Rosalie and sired by the first cheetah to ever be born at SCBI, 10-year-old Nick.
- The public can catch a glimpse of the new cheetah family through SCBI’s webcam livestream.
Five cheetah cubs were born at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in Front Royal, Va., on Tuesday morning.
The cubs were delivered between 5:20 a.m. and 11:16 a.m. by SCBI’s 5-year-old cheetah Rosalie and sired by the first cheetah to ever be born at SCBI, 10-year-old Nick.
The public can catch a glimpse of the new cheetah family through SCBI’s webcam livestream.
“Seeing Rosalie successfully care for this litter—her first—with confidence is very rewarding,” Adrienne Crosier, cheetah reproductive biologist at SCBI and head of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Cheetah Species Survival Plan, said in a news release. “Being able to witness the first moments of a cheetah’s life is incredibly special. As webcam viewers watch our cheetah family grow, play and explore their surroundings, we hope the experience brings them joy and helps them feel a deeper connection to this vulnerable species.”
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SCBI’s keepers can’t perform wellness checks on the cubs until Rosalie leaves them for “an extended period of time,” but they are being monitored via the live feed and “appear to be strong, active, vocal and eating well.”
SCBI is one of only 10 cheetah breeding facilities in the United States. Cheetahs are considered a species vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and there are estimated to be approximately 7,000 cheetahs that live in the wild.
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