The newest resident at Mérida’s Centenario zoo.Photo: 2021 file photo
The birth of a jaguar cub in Mérida’s city zoo was announced on Mayor Renan Barrera Concha’s Twitter account.
The feline, which is endemic to the Yucatan, has become an endangered species due to factors such as habitat loss.
The birth of jaguars in captivity is an uncommon occurrence, with the previous birth being recorded in the Culiacán zoo in Northern Mexico. Reproduction of endangered species in captivity is seen as a reason for celebration by conservationist, however, experts warn against placing too much hope on such events without addressing the root causes of the problem.
Zoo authorities have said that they will be launching a contest to come up with a name for the cub, but no further details have been made public.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTERDelivered to your inbox every Monday, completely free.
¡Tenemos una buena noticia!. Hace unos días nació un jaguar negro en el zoológico el Centenario, una especie endémica y en peligro de extinción. Estamos muy contentos con la noticia y queremos invitarles a participar en la convocatoria para juntos ponerle nombre. @AyuntaMeridapic.twitter.com/YGhEqy9P94
Senior Editor Carlos Rosado van der Gracht, PhD, is a journalist, photographer, and expedition leader. Born in Mérida, Carlos holds degrees from universities in Mexico, Canada, and Norway. Most recently, he earned a doctorate in Heritage Studies in 2026.
Social media posts claiming that 35 Mercedes-Benz buses are being pulled from Mérida’s Va y Ven system and shipped off to Aguascalientes have set off a bigger conversation about the state of public transit in the city. David Quintal Medina, president of the Circuito Metropolitano road council, said there’s no official word confirming where those…
The Tren Maya derailed again Monday, coming off the tracks about 50 meters (164 feet) after leaving San Francisco station in Campeche on a run bound for Mérida. None of the 123 passengers aboard was injured, according to the railway’s operator. The train’s engineer stopped the unit as soon as the derailment was detected, and…
Power has been fully restored across Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Campeche and Chiapas after an overnight blackout that lasted nearly eight hours, following vandalism to two high-tension transmission lines. The outage began minutes after 7 p.m. Monday and reached Mérida by about 7:21 p.m., cutting electricity across large parts of the city, its metro area and…
Fishermen in Progreso say some of the coast’s shelter ports have turned into what they’re calling cementerios de barcos — boat cemeteries. Members of the artisanal fishing sector are pushing for a formal program to identify and remove abandoned or unused vessels sitting in the puertos de abrigo, or shelter ports, and fishing refuges along…
Six years after part of its bell tower came crashing down, the old Franciscan convent in Tekantó is still waiting for repairs. The convent of San Agustín, now a secular parish under the Archdiocese of Yucatán, was built in 1576, with a corridor added in the 18th century. In June 2020, heavy rain from Tropical…
A federal judge has granted a new suspension against the contested Las Dunas real estate development in Chuburná Puerto, this time targeting the municipal permits that allowed construction to move forward. Residents of Chuburná Puerto, the collective Salvemos las Dunas and the organization Kanan Derechos Humanos won the provisional order after filing an amparo lawsuit…
