T' Pau & Nagil
Panthera pardus - ASIAN LEOPARD
T’Pau and Nagil were born
to Jasmine and Ruper in 1995.
They are both males and
both marked like their mother.
Their birth was one of
the first ever to be captured on film
and you may have even
seen them born in a segment featured on “Animal Planet”.
Unlike Jasmine’s other
cubs, she did not reject these babies and nursed them right away.
She was very protective
of them and would not let us near them for quite a while.
At 4 weeks of age,
Jasmine started to carry the cubs one at a time, by their head and neck.
She was trying to move
them into the exhibit with the other adults.
The decision was made to
pull the babies and put her back in with her family.
Surprisingly, she was so
happy to be in with the adult leopards that she did not once cry for her
babies.
Both of the boys have
played an active part in the zoo’s education program
and spend much of their
day “hamming it up” for our guest by providing
“Kodak Moments” with
unique poses for the camera.
They enjoy the spotlight
of being “TV Stars”.