Smithsonian Cheetahs Heathy and Growing

The five cheetah cubs, born in May, received their first clean bill of health from a zoo veterinarian. Photos by Lisa Ware, courtesy Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

If you read The Washingtonian regularly, you know we’re all over the cute baby animals beat. The most recent craze in the Smithsonian’s animal family is a litter of five adorable cheetah cubs, born this May at the National Zoo’s Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia. We told you when they were born, made sure you saw the first pictures of them, and interviewed one of the biologists that has been working with them, Adrienne Crosier.

The Smithsonian now tells us that the cubs underwent their first veterinarian exam on July 12 and have gotten a clean bill of health. The six-week-old cubs weighed at in between four and five pounds each. A zoo associate veterinarian, Dr. Margarita Woc-Colburn, said she didn’t detect any abnormalities in the cubs and gave them their first vaccinations against respiratory and gastrointestinal viruses, which commonly affect cheetahs. You can get more cheetah cub updates at the National Zoo’s Web site.

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Kay Steiger