Please Enjoy These Photos of the National Zoo's New Cheetah Cubs

I’m certain I’ve exhausted my Jezebel Cute Animal Content quota by now, but it’s a pandemic Sunday and I’m tired of bad news. Instead, I have culled for your viewing pleasure a number of Instagram photos of the Smithsonian National Zoo’s four new-ish cheetah cubs.

The cubs, as I’ve gleaned from Googling “AHHHHHH NEW NATIONAL ZOO CHEETAH CUBS WHAT ARE THEY THEY ARE SO FUCKING CUTE HELP ME,” were born to their cheetah mother Echo on April 8. Due to the pandemic, the zoo is closed right now, unfortunately, but you can still keep up with the cubs on the zoo’s Cheetah Cub Cam. The zoo’s also been uploading some incredible baby cheetah shots to its Instagram feed:

Whaaaaaa???

Ahhhhh!!!

This little dude is a ham:

I hyperventilated so hard while watching this video of one of the cubs getting weighed I accidentally blew out a candle:

Here’s another one. I am very unwell!

And for reference, here’s a shot of the cubs when they were very nearly brand new:

The cubs do not have names yet, but according to the Washingtonian, the zoo announced some options you can vote for. They include:

• For the female, Amabala (“Zulu for ‘spots’”); Vivace (“A musical term meaning short, lively and brisk”); or Iambe (“One of the two daughters of the mountain nymph, Echo, in Greek mythology”).

• For the lads, Jabari (“Swahili for ‘fearless’ or ‘brave one’”); Hasani (“Swahili for ‘handsome’”); Phoenix (“A mythical bird associated with the sun that regenerates or is otherwise born again from its own ashes”); Erindi (“A protected reserve in Namibia where many cheetahs are re-released”) or Tolbo (“Mongolian for ‘spot”’).