Five cheetah cubs were born at the Smithsonian's Front Royal campus

Five cheetah cubs were born on October 5 at the Smithsonian's Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia. Smithsonian Magazine reported on October 9, 2026, that their mother, Zura, is five years old and raising a litter for the first time. The cubs are healthy. They started climbing on her the day they were born, and staff are staying out of the den while they watch a camera. The Front Royal campus is closed to visitors, so the Cheetah Cub Cam is how the public can see them.

This is the institute's 21st cheetah litter and its 90th cheetah birth. Zura was born there in 2021. Her mother and grandmother are still at the facility, which makes the new cubs the fourth generation of one family in the biologists' care. Their father, nine-year-old Flash, has sired seven cubs in earlier litters. Cheetah fathers do not help raise the young. The cubs were born with their eyes and ears closed. Curator Adrienne Crosier said that in a litter of five, somebody is usually nursing. On October 9, Zura left the den for food and water for the first time since the birth, then went straight back.