{"id":2160936,"date":"2025-11-17T02:07:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T02:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2160936"},"modified":"2025-11-17T02:07:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T02:07:17","slug":"litter-of-4-cheetah-cubs-born-at-smithsonians-front-royal-zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/litter-of-4-cheetah-cubs-born-at-smithsonians-front-royal-zoo\/","title":{"rendered":"Litter of 4 cheetah cubs born at Smithsonian\u2019s Front Royal Zoo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p>A litter of four cheetah cubs was born on the Smithsonian&#8217;s National Zoo&#8217;s Front Royal, Virginia, campus in October.<\/p>\n<div id=\"Entry-content\">\n<div class=\"gallerySlider Entry-gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallerySlider--for-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"gallerySlider-for\">\n<figure>\n                                                    <figcaption>\n                              Amabala, an adult female Cheetah at the Smithsonian\u2019s Conservation Biology Institute Front Royal campus in Virginia, pregnant with a litter due in the fall of 2025. (Courtesy Smithsonian\u2019s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute\/Brooke B. McDonough)<br \/>\n(Courtesy Smithsonian\u2019s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute\/Brooke B. McDonough)                            <\/figcaption><p>\n                                Courtesy Smithsonian\u2019s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute\/Brooke B. McDonough                            <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<figure>\n                                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251018-001CC.jpg\" alt=\"Cheetah Amabala with her cubs\"\/><figcaption>\n                              A Cheetah Cam image of female cheetah Amabala, with her four cubs in their den, at the Smithsonian\u2019s Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia.<br \/>\n(Courtesy Smithsonian\u2019s National Zoo and Cheetah Cam)                            <\/figcaption><p>\n                                Courtesy Smithsonian\u2019s National Zoo and Cheetah Cam                            <\/p>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallerySlider-nav\">\n<div class=\"gallerySlider-nav-item\">\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251003-_MCD4346-002BM_0-260x174.jpg\" alt=\"Pregnant adult female cheetah Amabala\"\/>\n                <\/div>\n<div class=\"gallerySlider-nav-item\">\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251018-001CC-260x174.jpg\" alt=\"Cheetah Amabala with her cubs\"\/>\n                <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<p>A litter of four cheetah cubs was born on the Smithsonian\u2019s National Zoo\u2019s Front Royal, Virginia, campus last month.<\/p>\n<p>Now, they can be seen through the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalzoo.si.edu\/webcams\/cheetah-cub-cam\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cheetah Cub Cam<\/a>, a live camera feed available on the Zoo\u2019s website.<\/p>\n<p>The cubs were born Oct. 17 to Amabala, a 5-year-old cheetah, who was also born on camera back in 2020. It\u2019s her first litter. The cub\u2019s father, Flash, is eight years old and has three cubs from a previous litter; however, male cheetahs are not involved in raising their young.<\/p>\n<p>According to the zoo, Amabala\u2019s was the 20th litter born on the Front Royal campus. They\u2019re the fifth litter to be livestreamed on the Cheetah Cub Cam.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"B-roll for media: Cheetah Cub Cam 2025\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fvKzkWXU7Wc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The zoo is part of the Cheetah Breeding Center Coalition, a group of 10 cheetah breeding centers nationwide working to develop and maintain a viable North American cheetah population under human care. Amabala\u2019s cubs will likely participate in the breeding program themselves one day, as their father is considered \u201cgenetically valuable,\u201d the zoo says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCheetahs can be challenging to breed, in part because female reproductive cycles can be sporadic and their behavior is often very difficult to interpret,\u201d Adrienne Crosier, a cheetah biologist at the zoo\u2019s Front Royal campus, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalzoo.si.edu\/news\/litter-four-cheetah-cubs-born-front-royal-campus-smithsonians-national-zoo-and-conservation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said Saturday in a release announcing the births<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s taken our team of keepers, veterinary staff and biologists thousands of man hours to produce 20 litters. For that 20th litter to be Amabala\u2019s is an exciting, full-circle moment for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t be surprised if the cubs are sleeping when you check the live feed: Baby cheetahs spend most of their early weeks napping, often lying on top of one another in a heap, according to the zoo. Also expect to catch them nursing, grooming, and playfighting with each other.<\/p>\n<p>Zoo staff are remaining hands-off to allow Amabala to bond with her new babies. But they are watching the cam in case they need to step in. The cubs appear to be strong, active, vocal and eating well.\n<\/p>\n<p>In June, eight endangered <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/animals-pets\/2025\/06\/8-endangered-black-footed-ferrets-born-at-national-zoos-virginia-campus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">black-footed ferrets <\/a>were born at the Front Royal campus to a black-footed ferret named Aristides.<\/p>\n<p>In September 2023, five cheetah cubs \u2014 <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/animals-pets\/2023\/09\/5-cheetah-cubs-born-at-smithsonians-front-royal-va-zoo-campus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">three males and two females<\/a> \u2014 were born on the campus to 8-year-old Echo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"single-page__signature bottom\"><em style=\"font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600;\">Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/newsletter-signup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"single-page__signature bottom\">\u00a9 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source wtop.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A litter of four cheetah cubs was born on the Smithsonian&#8217;s National Zoo&#8217;s Front Royal, Virginia, campus in October. Amabala, an adult female Cheetah at the Smithsonian\u2019s Conservation Biology Institute Front Royal campus in Virginia, pregnant with a litter due in the fall of 2025. (Courtesy Smithsonian\u2019s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute\/Brooke B. McDonough) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2160937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[414310,414311,414312,413993,414313],"class_list":["post-2160936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-adrienne-crosier","tag-cheetah-cubs","tag-front-royal","tag-national-zoo","tag-smithsonian-national-zoo-and-conservation-biology-institute"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Litter-of-4-cheetah-cubs-born-at-Smithsonians-Front-Royal.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2160936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2160938,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160936\/revisions\/2160938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2160937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2160936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2160936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2160936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}