Guwahati: The Assam State Zoo cum Botanical Garden in Guwahati celebrated the birth of a new member, a Black Panther cub, to parents Meena and Mohan, recently.
Mohan, the male black panther, was raised at the Guwahati zoo after being rescued from Doomdooma in Upper Assam’s Tinsukia district some nine years ago. He was about one and a half months old then and was hand-raised by the zoo staff.
Meena was rescued by the state forest department in the Khowang Range of Dibrugarh district in May 2017 and brought to the zoo in Guwahati. The big cat had strayed into the villages and was severely injured when people cornered and attacked her.
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Assam Zoo is now the only zoo in the country to have a family of five black panthers, and a total of six black panthers in captivity, including the cub. The zoo fraternity is extremely delighted and had a small celebration after the birth of the cub.
“We have a new member. It is a Black Panther cub. Mohan and Meena are its parents. The cub is healthy and we are doing our best in raising it”, zoo keeper Moidul Islam said.
A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of any big cat species. In Asia and Africa, melanism occurs among five subspecies of leopards. In Assam though, the leopard remains a poorly attended species.
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On the other hand, on December 25, Christmas day, a divisional elephant Jonaki, gave birth to a calf in the Western Forest Range Bagari of the famed Kaziranga National Park. The elephant calf has been named Chris as it was born on Christmas day. Both the mother and the calf are doing well.
Jonaki’s mahout Bubul Gogoi, “We are very happy that a new member has come in the new year. The male calf is healthy and doing well. We have named it Chris. We all are very happy.”