Agnessa, black jaguar's granddaughter, settles in Leningrad Zoo

The Leningrad Zoo, which is going to celebrate its birthday on Wednesday, August 14, has got an unusual present, a spotted she-jaguar.

Three-year old Agnessa came to St. Petersburg from the Yekaterinburg Zoo (the Urals), said Natalia Popova, the curator of the zoo's collection of animals. In a month it will join a six-year old male, living in the Leningrad Zoo. According to Popova, both jaguars are spotted, but it is possible that they will give birth to a rare black jaguar: Agnessa is a granddaughter of a black jaguar, who earlier lived at the Leningrad Zoo.

The Leningrad Zoo sent a Far-Eastern marten to Yekaterinburg in exchange. It is very difficult to keep this animal in cage and to get its posterity. Only the Leningrad and Novosibirsk Zoos managed to do it.

The Petersburg Zoo, the most northern zoo in the world, was founded on August 14, 1865.

The modern collection of the Zoo includes 408 species of animals, with 180 species being listed in the international Red Data Book.