The National Zoo’s Andean bear Brienne gave birth to two cubs earlier this month, marking the first Andean bear cubs to be born at the zoo in eight years.

Both cubs, entering the world around four hours apart on Nov. 15, are doing well under mom’s attentive eyes, according to the zoo. It’ll be about three to four months before zookeepers can perform exams to determine the cubs’ sexes, but staff is “cautiously optimistic” the pair will thrive.

Like panda bears, it’s kind of a big deal when Andean bears successfully breed given their finnicky and largely misunderstood reproductive habits. Zookeepers, acting as a (more scientific) Date Lab of sorts, have to study the bears’ personalities, temperaments, health, and hormone cycles in order figure out which pair would make the best lovematch and at what time. And even when a happy couple does get into some frisky business, bear pregnancies are delicate and can be abruptly ended by resorption–when a female bear’s uterus resorbs the fetus.

In March and late April, the zoo bred three-year-old Brienne with nine-year-old dad Quito for the first time, but due to delayed implantation of the fertilized egg (which doesn’t happen until several months after breeding), it’s difficult to pinpoint when exactly pregnancy begins. Keepers trained Brienne to “participate” in ultrasounds, and began checking on her in August. In late October, ultrasound images showed skeletal development and heartbeats of the cubs.

“For a new couple like Brienne and Quito, it is great to see all of the management, science, and time that we have put into this species culminate in such a great way,” Sara Colandrea, the Zoo’s species survival plan coordinator, said in a press release. “We’re looking forward to watching Brienne navigate motherhood and, of course, all the cute antics we’re bound to see from little bear cubs!”

The cubs will join the zoo’s Andean bear family of mom Brienne, dad Quito, and 14-year-old fun aunt Billie Jean (who is also Quito’s former lover.) Keepers tried to breed Billie Jean and Quito unsuccessfully for the last time in 2020, after Billie Jean — who has mothered five surviving Andean bears in the U.S. and Europe — resorbed a pregnancy.

Until the cubs are ready to make their public debut, visitors can watch the family virtually on the Andean Bear Cub Cam, where the cubs can be seen cuddling with mom. (You might want to mute your computer to avoid blowing out your speaker with their very vocal squawks.)

Andean bears — South America’s only bear species — are on the International Union for Conservation Of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, with only an estimated 2,000 left in the wild.