The world’s
first jaguar cub has been born through artificial insemination, but was eaten
soon after delivery.
The
veterinary team behind the procedure at the environmental organisation Mata
Ciliar in Sao Paulo, Brazil, have hailed the birth as a scientific
breakthrough, despite the way it ended.
Jaguars are
currently an endangered species with diminishing numbers, so scientists hope
artificial insemination will help in conservation efforts to preserve the
species.
The healthy
female cub was born on February 16 this year, 104 days after her five-year-old
mother, Bianca, was artificially inseminated.
Although
vets witnessed Bianca demonstrate ‘excellent maternal care’ on the first day,
two days after giving birth she ate her baby.
Samuel
Nunes, spokesperson for Mata Ciliar, explained they don’t know if the cub was
killed by its mother:
We don’t
know why and cannot say if it was killed by the mother because it was not seen
on the monitors on the second day.
Bianca was a
first time mother and this may have influenced the outcome of the event. The
veterinary team could not conduct a necropsy because the baby had already been
eaten.
It is not
uncommon for this to happen, both in captivity and in nature, especially in the
case of carnivores.
As Nunes
mentions, the scientists had been filming Bianca and her cub, capturing the
historic birth on camera.
Initiated in
2017, the project was developed in partnership with scientists at the Centre
for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW), and a leading
researcher in the field, Regina Paz, from Brazil’s Mata Grosso Federal
University (FUMG).
Paz
explained how five female jaguars were picked to be artificially inseminated,
all of a good age and good health.
However,
numerous attempts with the females were unsuccessful, and scientists first saw
a positive result in November last year, which led to the birth of the cub.
The positive
result excited scientists who’d been intensely working on the project,
developing ways to monitor the female jaguars’ behaviour and synchronise their
body heat.
They were
further delighted when the cub was born, as Dr Bill Swanson, a researcher at
CREW, said:
The jaguar
is the last of the seven species of large-sized felines to undergo artificial
insemination (AI).
The birth of
this cub is an important historical landmark. It invigorates the possibility of
the use of assisted reproduction as a management tool that increases the
genetic variability of (captive and wild) populations and the conservation of
these endangered iconic cats.
Despite the
grim ending for the cub, researchers are hoping to carry out more procedures
this year.
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