The Woodland Park Zoo’s four Lion cubs, which you have most likely read about several times on ZooBorns by now, were born on November 19. The two male and two female cubs have been growing by leaps and bounds thanks to the excellent care of mom Adia and the watchful staff at the Zoo. But all this time they have gone without names.The Zoo recently held a naming contest and the results are in!

Congratulations go to Tate and Ross MacDonald of Seattle and Pamela Garland of Olympia for submitting the winning names as chosen by a panel of zoo judges:
Male cub – Rudo (“love” in Zulu), Female cub – Busela (“happy and independent” in Zulu)
Rudo and Busela join their brother and sister, who also recently received names from some of the zoo’s big cat donors: Pelo (“heart” in Sotho) for the second male, and Nobuhle (“the beautiful one” in Zulu) for the second female.

The lion cubs now have the full run of their exhibit, and are regularly going out with mom. They have gotten big enough and become coordinated enough to be safe by the habitat's moat. Four growing cubs could be a paw-full for mom, but, as you can see from the picture below, she is always in charge. 

Photo Credit: Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo

With the run of the exhibit, the cubs' games of tag are much more epic – and when it's time for a rest, their favorite spot is the big heated rock. Read more about their explorations on the zoo's blog.

Look for more pictures of the cubs after the fold:

Photo Credit: Mat Hayward/Woodland Park Zoo

Photo Credit: Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo