My son and daughter love to race around the house pretending
they are Dora & Diego, from the popular Nick Jr. television cartoons,
playing along with a stuffed animal in their adventures they imagine to be one
of the show’s sidekicks called Baby Jaguar.
In fact, I believe they talk more about Baby Jaguar when they are
playing than Diego, Dora, or any other aspect of the show…well maybe accept
Swiper the swiping fox as I often hear them saying “Swiper no Swiping” as they
go about exploring the wild jungle of our living room. So they were really excited to have the
chance to see two real life baby jaguars!
They don’t have any jaguars on display at our local zoo, but
in November two cubs were born at the Milwaukee County Zoo and we've been able to
catch glimpses of them by a live webcam feed that has been posted. My kids were so excited to see the jaguar
cubs that have unofficially been named Gaps & Dots due to the markings on their heads by the zoo
staff caring for them, that my monitor is covered with finger print smudges from them pointing the cubs out to me. Here’s a link if
you’d like to check out Dots and Gaps for yourself:
These two jaguar cubs are also very important to the species
because their father was captured in the wild and brought to the zoo because he
was deemed a nuisance for attacking cattle and so these births introduce a new
gene pool to the captive population that will help promote healthy breeding in future
generations. Jaguars are the third
largest “big cat” behind the lion and
tiger and is the largest feline native to North & South America. Wild jaguars can be found in the southern
United States, Mexico, Central America and South America. Unfortunately, they are a threatened species
with declining numbers. For more
information on wild jaguars and how you can help in the effort to protect them,
visit the conservation group PANTHERA: http://www.panthera.org/species/jaguar
The Milwaukee County Zoo has also posted a nice video with
more information about Gaps and Dots that is interesting to watch:
Aw how cute! They should be Dora and Diego for Halloween! Do they watch Team Umizoomi too? You've got the pair for that show too! :) Cute!
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