Photo via National Zoo

Guess what, ursine fans? An ultrasound examination conducted on Billie Jean, the National Zoo’s six-year-old Andean bear, revealed that she is pregnant with a couple of cubs.

The zoo announced in a press release that weekly ultrasounds conducted since early November have showed a pair of small, but growing amniotic sacs. The cubs’ father is Nikki, a 20-year-old Andean bear that was euthanized in August. But the zoo’s veterinarians are being cautious. Like all bears, the zoo says, Andeans sometimes lose pregnancies after resorbing fetuses.

Still, here’s something to admire about the Andean cubs. Billie Jean and Nikki, who previously produced a set of cubs in January 2010, mated in April, and it was an unassisted coupling. That’s right, unlike some other bears, the Andeans were capable of natural breeding.

In a tweet, the National Zoo added Billie Jean’s pregnancy will commence another round of its sometimes sweet, sometimes annoying, sometimes NSFW hashtag “#cubwatch.” But that could just dredge up bitter memories of the panda cub that died earlier this year. These Andean bears, though, are no clueless breeders with flawed techniques. They are better bears, and deserve a better hashtag, let’s call it #towardabetterbear.