Endangered cougar cubs named  after virus crisis

Two  cougar  cubs, ,  born  in Mexico during  the COVID-19 crisis  have been named Pandemic and Quarantine

The cubs with spotted fur were born on March 20, five days after the pandemic arrived in Córdoba, in the state of Veracruz.

Gonzalo Rodríguez, the legal representative of the Africa Bio Zoo, told AFP with the names they seek to “create awareness throughout the planet that we have to be more responsible and united as a society in the face of crises.”

According to the expert, Pandemic and Quarantine are increasing world inventories of specimens of the American concolor cougar, considered extinct in several countries, including the United States.

The species is protected by regulations of the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico and verified in danger of extinction by the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection.

Pandemic and Quarantine these days are the darlings of the zoo, where they play among the trees with their claws, which already hint at the enormous size they will reach, they try to catch the bottle with which they feed them in their arms.

According to Rodríguez, during their first months of life the American cougars have round spots on their fur, which gradually fade away.

The feline couple belongs to a family of cougars rescued from a circus after a law was passed in Mexico in 2015 that prohibits animals in shows.

“They were born in natural reproduction during social isolation by COVID-19,” said  Kitzia Rodríguez, a veterinarian at her family’s zoo.

In her opinion, gestation was possible, in part, because the confinement imposed by the crisis of the new coronavirus contributed to lower stress and contamination rates. in Córdoba, in the state of Veracruz.