It's been brutal since the election, so I'm going to take your mind off how bad things have been and introduce my local zoos new Jaguar cubs.
Oh, yeah, they're cute.
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The Milwaukee County Zoo on Oct. 23 presented the second litter of jaguar cubs born to Stella and Pat in August. (link goes to more pictures).
Of course, there's video of their recent first public appearance. While the cubs are curious about their audience, Mama Jaguar, as you'll see, is none too happy about the event and makes her feelings repeatedly known. Even though we know that her cubs are safe, she instinctively works to protect them from others.
Their 1 year old brother, B'alam, was recently sent to the San Antonio Zoo for breeding purposes.
When B'alam, which means jaguar in Mayan, and his brother Zean were born to Pat and Stella at the Milwaukee County Zoo last year, zookeepers knew the family would eventually get broken up.
Just like in the wild. Had the brothers been born in the wild, their mother would have kicked them out to fend for themselves months ago, not long after she finished nursing and before she became ready to breed again.
Their births and those of other animals in the Species Survival Plan Program at AZA-accredited facilities are carefully monitored for breeding.
A variety of factors are considered in ranking animals on the lists, including age, gender, geographic location, parentage, behavior and genetics.
...
Because Pat's genetics are from the wild, his offspring are higher up on the list of desirable jaguars at American zoos.
There are 111 jaguars in 46 accredited facilities participating in the jaguar Species Survival Plan, including 58 females.
So, how do you comfortably ship a jaguar? It's a long process.
It's sad to think that such beautiful animals are extremely endangered in the wild, but good to know that there are breeding programs working to maintain the species for a time when people stop destroying their habitats.
Sad addendum:
Since this diary was originally written, one of the new jaguar cubs has died from injuries from another jaguar after a door between enclosures was mistakenly left open. Mama jaguar, Stella, has been agitated since the incident and both she and her remaining cub have been taken off exhibit.
Even more sad, it was Zean, one of the jaguars mentioned in the above blockquote, the cubs brother from an earlier litter, who attacked them. [If you go to that link, you can close the multimedia display to view the pictures as a spread instead of individually]
There hasn't been any further information available.
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