Clouded Leopard Cubs

An endangered clouded leopard at the National Zoos Conservation and Research Center (CRC) in Front Royal, Virginia, gave birth to a genetically valuable litter of two cubs early in the morning on March 24. Staff had been on pregnancy watch of the two-and-a-half-year-old clouded leopard Jao Chu for five days.

This is Jao Chus first litter. She and the cubs father, two-and-a-half-year-old Hannibal, were born in Thailand in a collaborative research program with the Zoological Park Organization of Thailand. The cubs sex will not be known until the first veterinary exam.

The newborn cubs will not be on exhibit. However, visitors may get an up-close treetop view of two clouded leopards—a male named Tai and a female named Mook—in their exhibit at the Zoo's Asia Trail.