A North-Chinese leopard couple, a species also known as amur leopards, had a new cub at Zoo Debrecen on 21 November 2023. The news of the baby born to a couple of this rare, endangered species swept across Hungarian media, garnering plenty of attention. The zookeepers performed the newborn’s vaccination in front of cameras to add to the media frenzy.
Now, about three months after her birth, we have an update on the adorable young feline.
She has been named Mulan in an online poll.
In a Facebook post on 31 January, Zoo Debrecen asked its followers to choose between three names: Ling Ling (meaning gorgeous or crystal clear in Mandarin Chinese), Mulan (meaning wood orchid), and Bingbing (meaning bright, gleaming). Perhaps thanks to the popularity of the classic Disney animated film by the same title from 1998, Mulan ended up winning.
It received 4,200 of its corresponding ‘heart’ reactions, beating Ling Ling’s 2,400 ‘likes’ and Bingbing’s 750 ‘care’ reactions. Her parents are named Coolio and Jilin.
The zoo was wise enough not to put the name of the new cub up to an open poll with no fixed options, which had produced catastrophic results for some brands in the past, such as in Mountain Dew’s 2012 contest to name the soft drink’s new flavour. Then, submitted by mischievous online users, a horribly antisemitic phrase emerged as the winner.
According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, there are only around 100 specimens of amur leopard living in the wild right now,
making it the rarest species of big cats in the world.
They can live up to 20 years in captivity. Little Mulan is expected to grow as big as 55–94 pounds (25–42 kilograms) as an adult cat. Meanwhile, adult male amur leopards tend to weigh between 70–106 pounds (32–48 kilograms).
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