Are they cute? Maybe a little scary? What we know for sure is that there are three more of them at the San Diego Zoo, which announced this week that a fossa had given birth to a litter of pups, who join nearly 40 others born at the zoo since 1989.
Fossa, which look kind of like a mountain lion crossed with a ferret, are natives of the island of Madagascar.
According to Merriam-Webster, a fossa is “a slender, long-tailed, carnivorous mammal (Cryptoprocta ferox of the family Eupleridae) of Madagascar that has retractile claws, usually reddish-brown or sometimes black, short, thick fur and anal scent glands.”
Natural history writer Fiona Sunquist, who is quoted by the online dictionary, writes that the fossa has evolved on the island to fill the role normally occupied by nocturnal cats and hunts lemurs and other small forest animals. A lemur is a fairly small long-tailed primate, which typically gets no bigger than 20 pounds. Male fossas, alternatively, top out at nearly the same weight.
San Diego Zoo
San Diego Zoo
Three fossa pups were born at the San Diego Zoo in July and are now on view in the Africa Rocks area.
The zoo’s three new pups — a pair of males, Isalo and Fiaro, Volana, a female — were, born back in July and have remained in their den since that time with their mom, Kintana, but are now venturing out and are on view in the Africa Rocks area.
The zoo described the fossa as a “vulnerable species” and are joined on Madagascar, which is in the Indian Ocean about 250 miles off the southeastern coast of Africa, by other fascinating animals such as the lowland streaked tenrec, the Madagascar flying fox, the indri and Coquerel’s sifaka.