NAME A JAGUAR

When the opportunity presented itself to sponsor the Milwaukee County Zoo’s two new‑born jaguar cubs, you could say we ‘pounced’ on it, writes Greg Jenkins, President at Milwaukee‑based Jenkins Jaguar.

While these two gorgeous blue‑eyed male cubs were born on November 13, no one outside of the zoo had seen them in the flesh until last week.

As neither one has a name yet, we used last week’s ‘unveiling’ to kick‑off the official ‘Name the Jaguar Cub Contest’ for which Jenkins Jaguar is a proud sponsor, along with our friends at Wisconsin Jaguar Ltd. Auto Club.

Everyone in Milwaukee gets the chance to make suggestions, with the winning name for one of the cubs being announced by mid‑March. The name for the second cub will come from school children in Belize, where the cubs’ father, Pat, is from.

Pat, the Great Cat, as he’s called, was captured in Belize when he started preying on local ranchers’ cattle. He was taken to the Belize Zoo for protection and in 2008, he was transported to Milwaukee in the hope that he’d mate with the zoo’s female jaguar, Stella.

Pat became quite a celebrity soon after he arrived, when around 1,200 school‑children in Milwaukee and Belize contributed to a book called ‘Pat the Great Cat: A Jaguar’s Journey’. It was published by Sharp Literacy, a Milwaukee non‑profit, to educate kids about endangered species and the importance of zoos.

Thankfully Pat got along well with Stella and the result is these two amazing cubs. The births are significant in that the cubs were fathered by a jaguar out of the wild, which brings vital new genes to the captive jaguar population.

Of course, when I got the call from the Zoological Society of Milwaukee inviting Jenkins Jaguar to sponsor the cubs, it was a no‑brainer. It meant we could align our sleek new Jaguar models with the actual animal that Jaguar is famous for ‑ two, in fact!

Naturally part of our support is financial, to provide some of the resources needed to help them grow in this new world, but it’s also to give them a voice through publicity. Our goal is to help bring awareness about jaguars and their difficulty to survive in the wild.

In return, the dealership gets to hold a private VIP event on March 14 where we can invite 50 guests for a ‘meet and greet’ with an up close look at the cubs and their parents at the zoo. Then in the summer, we’ll be able to display a couple of Jaguar models ‑ one for each cub, if you will ‑ at the zoo.

We’ve already started promoting our partnership with the zoo on our dealership website www.jenkinsjaguar.com, talking about the naming competition, and providing a link to the zoo’s ‘Jaguar Cubs Live Web Cam’ showing them in their enclosure.

As you’d imagine, everyone within the Jenkins Imports family is hugely excited about our involvement with these adorable jaguar cubs.

As for the naming, our community has a rare opportunity to be involved with these special animals and Jenkins Jaguar is honored to be a part of such a great cause.

To see the Jaguar Cubs Live Web Cam at the Milwaukee Zoo, please visit: http://www.milwaukeezoo.org/explore/webcams/jaguarcubs.php