Five cheetah cubs, one webcam, and a bloodline four generations deep

They are not on display — newborn cheetahs need quiet, and keepers keep their distance. So the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute did the next best thing: a 24-hour, two-den Cheetah Cub Cam, so anyone in the world can watch five newborn cubs snuggle with their mother Zura at the breeding facility in Front Royal, Virginia. The litter, born on 5 October, is the fourth generation of a bloodline born at the institute — great-grandmother Sanurra, then Rosalie in 2015, then Zura in 2021, and now her five. Cheetahs are a vulnerable species, with fewer than 7,000 left in the wild; the Smithsonian is part of a North America-wide effort to breed a sustainable population. The cubs will stay on camera for about six to seven months, until they stop sleeping in the same den — after which they will likely remain at the institute for a year or two before moving to other facilities to carry the bloodline on.