Four cheetah cubs born at Smithsonian zoo as species fights extinction

Four cheetah cubs are thriving at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Virginia, born to a first-time mother named Amabala just as the U.S. government was shutting down in October. The births matter because cheetahs are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity—and because there are only about 6,500 of them left in the wild.

Cheetahs once numbered in the tens of thousands across Asia and Africa at the start of the 20th century. Habitat loss, poaching, and human conflict have since whittled the population down to a vulnerable status. So when Amabala, a 5-year-old female born in the captive breeding program herself, delivered four healthy cubs on October 17 and 18, the keepers at the National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute's campus in Front Royal, Virginia knew they were witnessing something significant.

This is the 20th litter of cheetahs born at the facility, but the accomplishment doesn't get easier. "Female reproductive cycles can be sporadic, and their behavior is often very difficult to interpret," says Adrienne Crosier, a carnivore biologist at the institute. The cubs—described as "strong, active, vocal and eating well"—are already defying the odds.

Right now, Amabala and her family are bonding in privacy, though the public can watch via the Cheetah Cub Cam, a live feed available online. You might not see all the action immediately; mothers move their cubs around the habitat, and their father, Flash, an 8-year-old male considered genetically valuable to the breeding program, plays no role in raising them. That's normal cheetah behavior.

The births fit into a larger conservation strategy. The Cheetah Breeding Center Coalition runs ten facilities across the United States, coordinating with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to decide which cheetahs breed based on genetics, health, temperament, and other factors. The goal is to maintain a healthy captive population in North America while also supporting wild conservation efforts and research that benefits both.

Amabala herself is a product of this program—born in 2020 to a mother named Echo, who has since had two litters of her own. These aren't isolated wins either. In recent years, the zoo has also welcomed endangered black-footed ferrets (including the first babies born to a cloned ferret in summer 2024), pygmy slow lorises, a Hartmann's mountain zebra, and Przewalski's horses. Each birth represents a deliberate effort to keep species from disappearing.

The four cubs will likely become part of the breeding program themselves as they mature, continuing a chain of conservation that began decades ago and might just help bring cheetahs back from the brink.