Their tiny tiny claws
May 25, 2012 2:54 PM Subscribe
Look at those baby cheetahs After a touch-and go birth, The National Zoo has some new baby cheetahs.
The Washington Post describes it as a "dramatic rescue." You can see their little faces here.
The Washington Post describes it as a "dramatic rescue." You can see their little faces here.
They're cuter than you, but that's nothing to be angry about.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 3:02 PM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 3:02 PM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
I love baby cheetahs. Walking postercubs for Nature's Mullet.
posted by restless_nomad at 3:06 PM on May 25, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by restless_nomad at 3:06 PM on May 25, 2012 [3 favorites]
I love baby cheetahs. Walking postercubs for Nature's Mullet.
Indeed.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 3:38 PM on May 25, 2012 [3 favorites]
Indeed.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 3:38 PM on May 25, 2012 [3 favorites]
Oh, they are horrifically cute.
The vertical stripes on the fur on the top of their heads looks like a cartoon drawing of someone's hair standing on end - the whole effect is to make the look slightly stunned.
posted by medusa at 3:46 PM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
The vertical stripes on the fur on the top of their heads looks like a cartoon drawing of someone's hair standing on end - the whole effect is to make the look slightly stunned.
posted by medusa at 3:46 PM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
Man, I was so excited to read this link, because I just got some new camera lenses and figured I'd go see them tomorrow! And then I read to the bottom of the page:
"The cheetah cubs will be on public exhibit later this summer."
posted by me & my monkey at 3:53 PM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
"The cheetah cubs will be on public exhibit later this summer."
posted by me & my monkey at 3:53 PM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
"Related links:Ten summer slow cooker recipes" NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
posted by Mike D at 4:10 PM on May 25, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by Mike D at 4:10 PM on May 25, 2012 [4 favorites]
They look like a rock band.
posted by Duffington at 4:16 PM on May 25, 2012
posted by Duffington at 4:16 PM on May 25, 2012
Aww. It's so cccuuuuuuuuttttee.
posted by eriko at 4:19 PM on May 25, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by eriko at 4:19 PM on May 25, 2012 [2 favorites]
Baby animals are seriously going to be the actualfax death of me one day when I hurl myself into a zoo enclosure to SNUGGLE ATTACK some fluffy little thing and get massacred by the mom instead.
posted by elizardbits at 4:23 PM on May 25, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by elizardbits at 4:23 PM on May 25, 2012 [3 favorites]
Why are baby animals so cute but baby humans look like half-melted bald midgets?
posted by Blue Meanie at 4:30 PM on May 25, 2012 [19 favorites]
posted by Blue Meanie at 4:30 PM on May 25, 2012 [19 favorites]
Fur.
posted by restless_nomad at 4:30 PM on May 25, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by restless_nomad at 4:30 PM on May 25, 2012 [4 favorites]
Aww. So cute. We just got a new baby bison in Chicago. She scampers!
posted by heyho at 4:34 PM on May 25, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by heyho at 4:34 PM on May 25, 2012 [4 favorites]
Why are baby animals so cute but baby humans look like half-melted bald midgets?
SERIOUSLY. Even baby warthogs are ridiculously adorable. Human babies are mostly just screaming poop-covered pastramis, which is frankly an insult to pastrami.
posted by elizardbits at 4:41 PM on May 25, 2012 [7 favorites]
SERIOUSLY. Even baby warthogs are ridiculously adorable. Human babies are mostly just screaming poop-covered pastramis, which is frankly an insult to pastrami.
posted by elizardbits at 4:41 PM on May 25, 2012 [7 favorites]
So how long had the mother stopped having contractions before they went in and took the three, two of which died? Did they have enough information?
posted by Toekneesan at 4:55 PM on May 25, 2012
posted by Toekneesan at 4:55 PM on May 25, 2012
And they say cheetahs never prosper...
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:58 PM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:58 PM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
My theory on that is that human babies have the whole 'born too early because of our large skulls' thing. Think about it-most human babies don't really get cute or resemble human beings until like 12 months or so.
posted by thewumpusisdead at 6:11 PM on May 25, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by thewumpusisdead at 6:11 PM on May 25, 2012 [2 favorites]
Well it all depends on the human baby, some are especially cute. My two had huge dark eyes with big eyelashes, and they had actual hair. Also they were mine. That made them automatically cute.
Seriously though, most animals do have cuter newborns than humans do.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 7:11 PM on May 25, 2012
Seriously though, most animals do have cuter newborns than humans do.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 7:11 PM on May 25, 2012
I dunno, compared to the three-inch-long tree roach that landed on my arm last night, baby cockroaches are fucking adorable.
posted by restless_nomad at 8:17 PM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by restless_nomad at 8:17 PM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
Finally! I have a friend who works at the zoo and she has been telling me these cubs' dramatic stories for weeks, but I haven't been able to tell anyone else that there are baby cheetahs at the zoo. She even got to see them.
posted by oneironaut at 8:25 PM on May 25, 2012
posted by oneironaut at 8:25 PM on May 25, 2012
Think about it-most human babies don't really get cute or resemble human beings until like 12 months 28 years or so.
posted by thewumpusisdead at 2:11 AM on May 26
FTFY
posted by Decani at 12:48 AM on May 26, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by thewumpusisdead at 2:11 AM on May 26
FTFY
posted by Decani at 12:48 AM on May 26, 2012 [2 favorites]
I had an internship at a zoo a few years ago, mostly coding video of fox behavior for sexual activity, but occasionally doing other stuff. I helped them pilot a study looking at hormones in cheetah pee, which involved standing outside of the behind-the-scenes cheetah exhibit and marking down each spot the cheetahs peed on a map of the enclosure. The cheetahs had just had kittens, so it was awesome. One afternoon I wasn't working, but apparently a keeper didn't thoroughly close the cheetah enclosure up, and all the baby cheetahs escaped and ran around behind the scenes of the zoo for a while until they all got rounded up. Apparently this wasn't the first time a cheetah escaped - a few years before that, a visitor got very upset at how irresponsible it was for the zoo to let people play with the cheetahs without even a single keeper around. It seems one of the adults got out out of his exhibit and was wandering around the zoo, approaching people and being scratched behind the ears.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:03 AM on May 26, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by ChuraChura at 6:03 AM on May 26, 2012 [3 favorites]
Every year the zoo does a valentine's day event (woo at the zoo) where they talk about all the new baby animals, and the grown up animals' baby making activities. It's so much fun - if anyone here lives in the DC area, I highly recommend it. I bet they'll talk about the Cheetahs next year, last year they had the baby lions and oh my god were they cute!! They also had cheetah baby-making videos, and well, those guys really are fast.
posted by echo0720 at 8:33 AM on May 26, 2012
posted by echo0720 at 8:33 AM on May 26, 2012
(to clarify, the actual baby lions were not there, just photos and video)
posted by echo0720 at 8:35 AM on May 26, 2012
posted by echo0720 at 8:35 AM on May 26, 2012
ChuraChura: I guess they ARE just big kitties. I'm glad it didn't decide that someone small was lunch though.
posted by Canageek at 8:58 AM on May 26, 2012
posted by Canageek at 8:58 AM on May 26, 2012
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