Next
month, after “Mira” is out of quarantine, visitors can see this beautiful
jungle cat, who is 12 years old. Her
elderly owner, founder of the South Florida Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in
Homestead, has a terminal illness and he contacted state wildlife officials to
help him find homes for his animals.
The
Palm Beach Zoo and Conservation Society at Dreher Park is excited about their
new resident and they say she is very affectionate with humans, and appears to
have been well loved and cared for in her last home. Yet, panthers are known to be solitary
animals. About 80 to 100 panthers remain
in Florida, and they are now one of the most rare and endangered mammals in the
world. The Panther National Wildlife Refuges
is east of Naples, Florida. Panthers are
at great risk of extinction.
Mira
has a few health problems, including curvature of the spine, but otherwise is
doing well. General curator Jan Steel says that having Mira, a “pure” Florida
panther, is exciting and “It allows us to show the differences between the
western cougar or puma and the Florida panther.
Three
Malayan tiger brothers, Jaya, Bunga and Penari have left the Palm Beach Zoo for
a new home at the Jacksonville Zoo.
Since 1900 the wild tiger population has decreased by more than 95% and
there is a Tiger Conservation Campaign among zoos. The Wildlife without Borders Rhinoceros and
Tiger Conservation Fund funded 53 projects in 15 countries for these conservation
project, implemented by the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, a federal agency of the Department of the Interior. Here is more
information. The tiger pictured above is at the Smithsonian Zoo in Washington DC.
The
Zoo recently added “and Conservation Society” to its name to stress they
provide care for endangered species, which has been part of their agenda for a
long time.
