{"id":300895,"date":"2026-06-09T03:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T03:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/300895\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T03:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T03:38:08","slug":"new-orphaned-cougar-cubs-join-central-florida-zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/300895\/","title":{"rendered":"New orphaned cougar cubs join Central Florida Zoo"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens has welcomed two new residents: a pair of orphaned cougar cubs.<\/p>\n

Zoo officials announced the arrival of the male and female siblings, who are approximately 10 weeks old and weigh between 9 and 12 pounds each.<\/p>\n

According to the zoo, the cubs came from South Dakota after being abandoned by their mother. The young cougars do not yet have official names.<\/p>\n

For now, the cubs are being cared for behind the scenes while they complete a mandatory 30-day quarantine required for incoming mammals.<\/p>\n

The zoo said guests will have to wait a little longer to see the cubs in person, but plans are in place to introduce them to the public later this year.<\/p>\n

The Central Florida Zoo said it will share more updates on the cubs in the coming weeks as they continue to settle into their new home.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n

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\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens has welcomed two new residents: a pair…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[147,6654,145,126385,28,30,29,139,35808,58777,144,146,27086],"class_list":["post-300895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-central-florida","tag-central-florida-zoo","tag-channel-9","tag-cougar-cubs","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-orlando","tag-quarantine","tag-south-dakota","tag-wftv","tag-wftv-channel-9","tag-zoo-officials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}