A female Tsushima leopard cat born in April this year is now open to the public at Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Garden (Chikusa-ku, Nagoya City).
This kitten’s name is Shitaru. She is still very young, weighing 2,065 grams, which is about half the weight of an adult animal. Many spectators have come to see her lovable face. A woman who came from Tokyo by Shinkansen bullet train said, “I took a day off work to come here. This kitten is really cute,” she said with a smile.
Shitaru freely moves between the exercise area and the air-conditioned room adjacent to it. On hot days, she sometimes cools off by soaking herself in water. On the first day the exhibit was open to the public, she was running around in good spirits.
The Tsushima leopard cat is an endangered species and a national protected species found only on Tsushima Island in Nagasaki Prefecture.
Shitaru is the seventh kitten born through breeding at the Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Garden. Shitaru was born by Caesarean section and has been living apart from her parents since birth. The purpose of opening the facility to the public is to expose her to outside stimuli to improve her adaptability.
This article is composed using Google Translate customized exclusively for The Chunichi Shimbun. The translation may have limited accuracy.