JUIGALPA, Nicaragua, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Curled up in a zoo in central Nicaragua, eyes alert and ears pricked, a puma is nursing her month-old snow-white cub.
The tiny, pink-nosed puma at Thomas Belt Zoo in Juigalpa marks the Central American country's first albino puma to be born in captivity and, according to estimates from zoo veterinarian Carlos Molina, one of only four worldwide.
Though the cub is healthy and eating well, Molina warned that it is still early days and that albino pumas require plenty of care and are vulnerable to sunlight.
Pumas are found across the Americas, from the high Andean region of southern Peru to the jungles of Central America.
Reporting by Maynor Valenzuela in Juigalpa; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Raju GopalakrishnanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Persons:
puma, Carlos Molina, Molina, Maynor Valenzuela, Sarah Morland, Raju Gopalakrishnan
Organizations:
puma, Thomas Belt Zoo, American, pumas, Thomas Belt, Pumas, Central America, The International Union for Conservation, Nature, Thomson
Locations:
JUIGALPA, Nicaragua, Americas, Peru, Central, North America, Juigalpa