Nashville Zoo has a clouded leopard cub named Mayuree, born May 5, 2026 and about the size of a loaf of bread at just over two pounds. She is the 51st clouded leopard born at the zoo since 1991, and the first the zoo has co-reared under an AZA Species Survival Plan partnership.
What co-rearing means
Mayuree is the fourth cub born to parents Niran and Ron. An ultrasound confirmed Niran’s pregnancy, and animal care staff monitored her by camera through the pregnancy and labor. The birth went without complication.
For the first 72 hours staff watched closely for the specific things that indicate a successful start: appropriate maternal bonding and nursing. About a week later the veterinary team ran a neonatal exam to check the cub’s health and development. Only then did they settle the arrangement: Niran raises the cub, with support from zoo staff.
That decision is the news here. Clouded leopard cubs have historically often been hand-raised, because the species can be difficult and losing a cub is a serious matter for a small managed population. Letting the mother do it, with a team ready to step in, produces a cub that has learned to be a clouded leopard from another clouded leopard. It requires enough confidence in the mother and enough monitoring to catch a problem early.
Nashville has had a busy year on the primate side too, taking in three confiscated spider monkey infants in August.
Fifty-one cubs in thirty-five years
The number is the real headline. Nashville Zoo has been breeding clouded leopards since 1991, and 51 births puts it among the most significant clouded leopard programs anywhere.
Clouded leopards are notoriously hard to breed in human care, in large part because pairs can be incompatible in ways that are difficult to predict. A program that has run three and a half decades has learned things about introductions, pairing and cub-rearing that cannot be acquired any faster than by doing it.
Seeing Mayuree
The zoo’s clouded leopards are part of its long-running conservation program, and a cub growing up alongside her mother is a genuinely uncommon thing to be able to watch. Check the zoo’s updates for when and where she is viewable. Young cats keep their own schedule, and a clouded leopard’s is mostly asleep in a tree.
Quick answers
- Who is Mayuree?
A clouded leopard cub born at Nashville Zoo on May 5, 2026, weighing just over two pounds. She is the 51st clouded leopard born at the zoo since 1991 and the fourth cub of parents Niran and Ron.
- What does co-rearing mean?
The mother raises the cub with support from zoo staff, rather than the cub being hand-raised. Nashville Zoo settled on the arrangement only after 72 hours of watching for appropriate maternal bonding and nursing, and a neonatal exam about a week after the birth.
- Why is co-rearing a clouded leopard notable?
Clouded leopard cubs have historically often been hand-raised, because the species can be difficult and losing a cub matters to a small managed population. Letting the mother do it, with a team ready to step in, produces a cub that has learned to be a clouded leopard from another clouded leopard. This is the first cub Nashville Zoo has co-reared under an AZA Species Survival Plan partnership.
