National Zoo Cuts its Lion Cub Cams in Preparation for Newborn Cubs

The Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C. said Thursday that its "lion cub cam" webcams are going offline, but that when they are reinstated viewers should expect to see a new litter of lion cubs.

"We want to let you know that for the immediate future all lion cub cams will be going offline. The good news is, when they come back online, we hope it's to give you a look at new lion cubs! Shera's due date is imminent, and our team is preparing for a new litter of cubs," the National Zoo wrote on its blog.

The zoo's lion cub cams were previously trained on the zoo's 10-year-old lioness Nababiep, who gave birth to two live cubs on Jan. 24. One cub in the litter of three was stillborn.

When the zoo announced the birth of the cubs, it said that Nababiep's younger sister Shera was also believed to be pregnant. The zoo's announcement Thursday confirmed Shera's pregnancy.

Both of the lionesses are part of a planned breeding program. About one month after breeding with Nababiep, the cubs' father, Luke, was also bred with Shera.

Now nearly a month old, Nababiep's cubs have access to several dens at the zoo's Great Cats exhibit, the zoo blog reported. The cubs and their mother have chosen to move to a den that is not connected to a webcam, so the zoo said it was disconnecting the feed in preparation for the birth of the next set of cubs.

The current set of lion cubs remain unnamed, as they have not matured to the point where their gender can be determined. The zoo said that the cubs will remain out of public view until later this year.

The zoo currently has five lions, two adult females, one male and two cubs.