Born at Local Zoo

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PV, Mating Hub of the World.

9 Felines Born at Local Zoo Recently

by Eduardo Rincón-Gallardo

No doubt Vallarta has seen many different species come to mate in the bay area.

Just 30 days ago Güera (spanish for blonde), a female white bengal tiger, and Adam, a yellowish bengal tiger (zookeeper calls the subspecies Bengala Tamizado), gave birth to a litter of three baby bengal tigers, Brizza, K-in and Heydi; two tamizados and one white.

Both white and tamizado are bengal tigers. Tamizados, which stands for filtered or sieved, seem to have stripes only on the forward part of their bodies. White bengal tigers are also a subspecies of bengal tigers and they have blue eyes, whereas albino tigers have red eyes. Other tigers such as Sumatran, Indochina, South China and Siberian are different subspecies and show different stripe patterns, size, and colors.

82 days ago Tigre Toño and Toña bengal tigers gave birth to another litter of three, Boss, Sasha and Mudo.

84 days ago Pancho Lion and Hillary Lioness gave birth to two cubs, Bizcocho and Pingüino (Biscuit and Penguin).

But, most spectacular of all, 75 days ago a baby female Jaguar was born!

Her name is Lucy and she is a hurricane of a pussycat. The zookeeper Martín Castañeda and the Vet Xóchitl Nicté Há (flower and Mayan Princess, in náhuatl and mayan) say she is a very loving creature. What I saw of her is that she was quite hard to handle and has left lots of painful lovemarks on both of them. What do I know? Love has its ways.

When left alone, the bengal cubs were all over Lucy Jaguar, and she just let them lick and kiss and caress her - they seemed to just adore her!

It was quite a scene to watch species from such distant geographical origins get along so well; the jaguar is a local cat that inhabits the Sierra del Cuale, south of Puerto Vallarta; and the Sierra de Vallejo, north of Nuevo Vallarta. Both mountain ranges frame the Bay and the Valley of Banderas and it comes natural to celebrate the birth and survival of each and everyone of this species. Being at the very top of the food chain, every individual living in the wild speaks volumes of the health of our surrounding environment.

To get to the zoo take the road south of Vallarta, when you reach Mismaloya Beach (about 10 miles from Vallarta) make a left turn on the dirt road towards the mountain, cross the town of Mismaloya and continue for five minutes in the direction of Eden. The zoo opens at 10 a.m., for more information visit www.zoologicodevallarta.com or dial 228 0501, 228 0955 or 228 0957.

Picture, the baby jaguar at the zoo.