Rescued Puma Cubs Make Public Debut At Philadelphia Zoo

PHILADELPHIA — About a month after two orphaned puma cubs were brought to the Philadelphia Zoo, the rescued brother-sister duo have made their public debut.

The zoo announced cubs Elbroch and Olympia are now visible to the public after being rescued in late August.

In June, Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife experts rescued the cubs in Kalama and briefly cared for them before flying them to Philadelphia Zoo as their new, permanent home.

The siblings are about 24 to 25 weeks old.

Elbroch's name was chosen in honor of Mark Elbroch, the leading puma researcher for Panthera, a conservation organization devoted to the protection of the world’s 40 species of wild cats. Olympia's name comes from the state capital of Washington, where the cubs were rescued.

Their placement at the Philly Zoo is crucial because officials said without the intervention of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Association of Zoos, and Aquariums and Philadelphia Zoo, they would likely not survive on their own and without their mother.

"Part of our mission at the Zoo is to connect people with animals to inspire action for wildlife and habitats," Vice President of Animal Well-Being Rachel Metz said. "We hope that all the guests who meet our puma cubs will learn their story and understand the importance of preserving wild places so that humans and wildlife can thrive together."

This pair is not the first orphaned pumas the zoo has cared for. In 2005, cubs Dakota, Sage and Cinnabar came to the Zoo after they were orphaned in the wild in South Dakota.

All three have since passed away from age-related causes.

In honor of their public debut, the Zoo is hosting a Big Cat Weekend Saturday and Sunday.

Activities for Big Cat Weekend include designing your own enrichment for your favorite big cat, acting like a scientist and choosing what name you would give a puma if you discovered them, and sampling the smells our big cats love and learning why scents are an important part of their daily care.

Big Cat Weekend activities are included with the price of a visit to Philadelphia Zoo.

About Pumas

Pumas are found across North and South America from Alaska to Chile, and have over 200 names because they inhabit the largest geographical region of any other cat in the world.

Other names for them include cougar, mountain lion, and panther.

They are classified as Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) but still face threats in the wild including habitat loss and fragmentation, road mortality and disease.

Pumas have the largest hind legs of any feline species, allowing them to jump huge distances while hunting.

Adults can leap horizontally more than 20 feet and 18 feet vertically. Pumas can catch prey as large as a moose and as small as a mouse.

Their fur ranges in color from a light buff to a dark reddish brown. The back of their ears and tips of their tails are black.

Pumas are not considered big cats because they cannot roar.

Instead, they have a high-pitched trill vocalization that sounds like a bird

There is no specific breeding season for pumas, but most births in North America occur in late winter and early spring, with two to four cubs born in a litter.

Cubs are completely dependent on mom when they are born and are covered in spots that fade as they grow, disappearing when they’re about six months old.

Cubs typically nurse for three months or more, but can begin eating meat at six weeks.