Mysore/Mysuru: Mysuru Zoo has come forward to house a jaguar and a black panther that will be brought from war-torn Ukraine to India after the completion of mandatory processes.
The animals were being fed and taken care of till now by Dr. Giri Kumar Patil, a native of Tankara in Mahbubnagar district in Telangana. He had bought the two cats from the Kyiv Zoo about 20 months ago and after the war began, he refused to leave home without his pets. Later he was captured by Russian soldiers and seeing his Indian passport, he was freed. While the male jaguar, named ‘Yasha’ is 20 months old, the female panther, named ‘Sabrina’ is a six-month-old cub. The jaguar is a rare hybrid between a male leopard and a female jaguar. He spent 35,000 US Dollars to buy the panther and the jaguar from the Kyiv Zoo.
