NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – As the Nashville Zoo battles a potential data center next door, it has announced a milestone birth of one of the “rarest of the world’s cat species.”
The clouded leopard was born on May 5 and is the first animal at the Nashville Zoo to be co-reared, which is when the animal mother raises and nurses the cub while animal care staff help it socialize from an early age.
The zoo said that the cub, named Mayuree, is currently the size of a loaf of bread and is the 51st clouded leopard born at the zoo since 1991.
Nashville Zoo Director of Veterinary Services Heather Schwartz said that clouded leopard reproduction and cub rearing are “notoriously challenging, with high rates of parental predation or neglect.” This has forced the cubs to often be hand-reared.
But Niran “is doing a wonderful job” caring for her new cub, the fourth that she’s given birth to, Schwartz said, allowing the zoo to co-rear an animal for the first time.
“We are excited to progress in our care techniques and studies with clouded leopards with this new birth and thrilled to be able to increase the population of threatened clouded leopards,” they added.
The zoo said clouded leopards are native to Nepal and Bangladesh and are considered vulnerable to extinction due to deforestation, poaching and the pet trade.
“Specific populations can be difficult to track, as the clouded leopard is among the rarest of the world’s cat species and one of the most elusive,” the zoo said. “The reduced number of pelts encountered at illegal markets and reduced sightings of clouded leopards by people within its range suggest the species is in decline.”
The zoo also said the cub’s birth “is now more important than ever” amid “its fight to block the proposed data center.”
The proposed data center would be two buildings — one 10 megawatt and another 40 megawatt — just feet away from Nashville Zoo property. The zoo has launched a petition speaking out against the facility, gathering nearly half a million signatures.
“They assert the community need not worry, that building a data center next door to one of the region’s most delicate environments will cause no harm,” the zoo’s petition says. “No one has shared studies or environmental impact assessments. Just their word. …How are we to know this new data center will not lead to irreversible damage to the animals we exist to protect?”
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