I'm intrigued by the American pronunciation of "jag-wah" as opposed to "jag-u-ar". Any idea why it should be different?
Since they come from our side of the world, I will say our pronunciation is correct and yours is wrong (Seriously though, we always contract words with u followed by a vowel like that - Americans never pronounce the u separately).
From what I can tell, the American pronunciation is correct (or more correct than the British). The "ua" in Spanish is a dipthong and pronounced as one sound. In the original language it is a two-syllable word and not the three-syllable word that the Brits use. Of course if we wanted to be absolutely perfect the J would be pronounced as a Y (yag-wahr).
Except... jaguar isn't a Spanish word. In Spanish they call it el tigre. Jaguar comes into English from an indigenous South American language.
Clearly it didn't pass into Spanish at all because the word for jaguar is tigre. Also it would be awkward to pronounce in Spanish as both the "j" and "g" would make an "h" sound. "hahwar" Edit: Apparently it passed into English via Portuguese where the pronunciation would be along the lines of "scha-go-ar".
They are picking up two Canada lynxes this week to add to their collection. Here is a listing of other species on site. jaguarundi (both gray and red) jaguar (both black and yellow) leopard (generic black and yellow amur) snow leopard tiger (generic/bengal) clouded leopard serval bobcat eurasian lynx lion (male is barbary, or as high percentage as is likely these days) southern cheetah
According to the website, they have two new cheetahs. (That makes a total of three if the one I saw last summer is still alive). Other than their names, Salsa and Jazz, there is no information. I am virtually certain the cheetah they already had was imported from DeWildt, South Africa. I would be curious to know if these are imports or if they came from a US facility. (If my curiosity gets the best of me, I will just email the owner who is a friend of mine).
Horrific News Yesterday an intern was killed by the male lion (who was killed by a sheriff). No firm details yet, but preliminary reports suggest the intern was cleaning the large exhibit when the lion somehow escaped from the small holding den where it had been fed and should have been locked out. Just a tremendous tragedy. Female volunteer mauled to death by lion at Cat Haven sanctuary - Top Stories - fresnobee.com Lion attack: 'I'm sorry this happened,' says president of cat haven - latimes.com
After being closed a few days for the investigation, the park reopened today (Sunday, March 10). Article says the victim's parents consented with the reoping and are encouraging people to donate to them and other wildlife causes, in honor of their daughter. I think it is great the parents are supporting them during this unthinkable moment in their lives. Some people would be angry and turn against the facility, but their support shows their love for their daughter as well as any gesture could. Zoo reopens after fatal lion attack - San Jose Mercury News
What a terrible tragedy. I'm glad to hear her family is not holding Cat Haven responsible and wants to see them to continue on.
I just got an email showing they have a new snow leopard cub, named Jackson. He is named in honor of Dr Rodney Jackson of the Snow Leopard Conservancy. Cub was born in May at an unnamed facility. Email also says something big is coming soon and has a closeup of an eye. There is a hint of mane on the edge of the photo and I am pretty sure it will be a male lion to be a replacement companion to their female (replacing the male that was shot in the tragic incident).
Website and Facebook confirm they do have a new 3 year old male lion as well as a new white tiger cub.
Two more jaguar cubs, one black and one typical, born November 3, 2014. Names are Nacho and Libre, so I assume they are both males? (That is all the info given in the Facebook announcement).
Settlement reached on legal battle over safety protocols. Cat Haven agrees to improve safety measures following intern lion mauling death | Local News | FresnoBee.com
