A male and female leopards in captivity in the Tehran Zoological Garden mated naturally on Wednesday for the very first time. Their cubs are expected to be born in 100 days. A veterinarian at the Tehran Zoological Garden, also known as the Eram Zoo, made the happy announcement in an interview with Mehr News correspondent […]
A male and female leopards in captivity in the Tehran Zoological Garden mated naturally on Wednesday for the very first time. Their cubs are expected to be born in 100 days.
A veterinarian at the Tehran Zoological Garden, also known as the Eram Zoo, made the happy announcement in an interview with Mehr News correspondent on Saturday.
Iman Memarian said the female leopard was under examination for the past two weeks and the sperms of the male leopard was constantly checked to make sure the two are in perfect health for reproduction.
He said today was the fourth day since Wednesday that the two leopards naturally mated, voicing hope that their cubs would debut in 93 to 100 days.
Memarian noted that the female leopard, called Kija, will take a pregnancy test in 20 days, saying the chances for pregnancy are very high given the fact that the sperms of the male leopard, ‘Gaspar’, are perfectly healthy and active.
According to him, leopards give birth to between one to six cubs, and they usually give birth to twins. He said the natural mating raises the chance for the birth of more cubs.
‘Gaspar’, the male leopard, has been brought to Iran last year.
This is the first time that leopards in captivity in Iran have managed to mate naturally, which heralds many other such happy occasions in the future.
On February 7, veterinarians at the Eram Zoo carried out an artificial insemination on a Persian leopard, which was aborted due to the fact that the female leopard was deemed physically unready for the operation.
