PHILADELPHIA-
Thirteen big cats–from a rare black jaguar to a trio of young snow leopards–are enjoying spacious new digs in the city after some time away "vacationing" at other zoos.
The Philadelphia Zoo has formally opened its new $20 million habitat, which is designed to give the animals a more natural setting and visitors a more intimate experience.
The exhibit also preaches conservation, using interactive games, video clips and other tools to describe the threats humans pose to big-cat species around the world.
The zoo's 10-month-old puma cubs–two girls and a boy–were orphaned in South Dakota last summer when a hunter legally killed their mother.
The 364-pound tiger Dmitri belongs to the subspecies once known as Siberian tigers, the largest of the world's big cats. With their range now limited to the Amur River Valley in southern Russia, they are now called Amur tigers. Only a few hundred remain in the wild.
Other exhibits describe the human encroachment that has largely driven jaguars from the southwestern United States into Mexico and pumas–also called mountain lions or cougars–from the eastern United States.
The zoo also offers information on a program in Kenya it supports that teaches ranchers how to build lion-proof corrals for their herds, so they don't shoot the endangered lions.
Big Cat Falls is likely to be a summer blockbuster for the zoo, which attracts as many as 13,000 visitors on a weekend summer day and 1.2 million visitors a year.
It is the first new exhibit at the Philadelphia Zoo since 1999, spokeswoman Ginette Meluso said. Details at .
