Names selected for cheetah cubs at Smithsonian Va. facility

Paw-5! Meet 🐆 cubs Maathai, Fossey, Murie, Leopold & Roosevelt. Thanks for voting to name them! @CBSThisMorning #EarthOptimism #EarthDay 🌏💚 pic.twitter.com/qRLgfkda0c

— National Zoo (@NationalZoo) April 22, 2017

Photo courtesy Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

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WASHINGTON — The votes have been tallied, and five of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s 10 new cheetah cubs officially have new names.

CBS News, which was helping with the online vote during Earth Day weekend, announced Saturday morning that the females’ names will be Maathai, Fossey and Murie. The two male cubs will be named Leopold and Roosevelt.

(The National Zoo confirmed the new names on Twitter Monday morning.)

The names were selected from a short list that honored groundbreaking conservationists: Wangari Maathai, Dian Fossey, Margaret Murie, Aldo Leopold and Teddy Roosevelt.

The cubs came from two different mothers and were born at the end of March at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia.