Chester Zoo has brought a new rare big cat into town, and she’s one good-looking feline.
The tourist attraction near Greater Manchester introduced the world to Inka, a two-year-old black jaguar, over the weekend.
She’s been brought to the zoo to be a companion for Chester Zoo‘s resident male, Napo.
Videos shared by the zoo show Inka exploring her new habitat with her jaw dropped – not a cat body language expert but she looks pretty stunned by her new home.
The gorgeous animal still has those signature jaguar markings, but she’s in shades of black and grey rather than the classic browns and oranges.
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It’s not just us falling in love with Inka either – Chester Zoo themselves described her as a ‘strikingly beautiful, bold and confident’ young jaguar. Which zookeeper’s been copying my Tinder bio?!
But then the zoo went on to say she has ‘short and thick set limbs’, which isn’t so complimentary.
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Fans have been delighted to see Inka making herself at home at the zoo, with hundreds of comments calling her ‘stunning’, ‘beautiful’ and ‘gorgeous’.
One person wrote: “She is beautiful! I follow the big cat sanctuary and love seeing her there, looking forward to seeing plenty of pics of her at Chester.”
Another said: “Stunningly gorgeous, what a beautiful addition to a brilliant zoo. So lucky to have Chester zoo on our doorstep.”
Carnivore experts at the zoo say her arrival will help to put a spotlight on her ‘remarkable’ species and support a European-wide conservation programme.
Jaguars are native to the Americas and listed as ‘near threatened’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Their numbers are declining in the wild, mostly because of humans – habitat loss, illegal hunting and conflict with humans are putting them at risk of extinction.
Dave Hall, team manager of carnivores at Chester Zoo, said: “Inka is a strikingly beautiful, bold and confident young jaguar and she’s quickly taken to her new surroundings.
“The union between her and Napo, the resident male here in Chester, has been carefully orchestrated by carnivore experts from here (Chester Zoo) and The Big Cat Sanctuary and the coordinators of a programme that’s working in partnership to ensure a genetically viable population of jaguars across Europe.
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Inka, a rare black jaguar, has arrived at Chester Zoo. Credit: SuppliedChester Zoo’s resident male jaguar Napo, who will be Inka’s companion. Credit: SuppliedInka inspecting her new home at Chester Zoo. Credit: Supplied
“We hope the two of them will go to form a strong and meaningful bond, and the early signs are positive.
“Like Napo, Inka is a wonderful ambassador for her species. Jaguars are remarkable animals and the two of them together will help us to raise more much-needed awareness of the survival challenges that they face in the wild, the work that’s already being done by zoos, our partners and the local conservationists and communities to protect the ecosystems that jaguars live in, and help us to inspire further action for their conservation.”
Paul Bamford, regional field programmes manager for the Americas at Chester Zoo, added: “Deforestation and habitat fragmentation are reducing jaguar populations across their range. According to the IUCN, close to 70% of deforestation in Latin America is driven by industrial agriculture, primarily for soy, oil palm and cattle production.
“Many of these products are exported to countries such as the UK, and therefore, our shopping habits can have a significant impact on global biodiversity loss. In our role as consumers, we are unwittingly contributing to the destruction of nature on our planet.
“At Chester Zoo we are working to influence policy, both in the UK and internationally, to address this. We are supporting efforts to improve production standards and legislation so that deforestation is minimised, or eliminated for good, and wildlife can live safely alongside productive areas.
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“The goal is to create a deforestation-free economy, in which countries are able to meet their development needs sustainably. If we can break the link between habitat loss and production, then we have the opportunity secure a future for people and wildlife.”
Manchester Airport issues latest travel update as it apologises to all passengers affected by power cut
Emily Sergeant
Manchester Airport has issued an update on today’s travel as it apologises to all the passengers who were affected by the power cut yesterday.
The airport says it expects the travel schedule to “run as usual with no further disruption” today.
It comes after thousands of passengers travelling through Manchester Airport yesterday were hit with major disruption – with all flights cancelled from Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, and severe delays affecting Terminal 3 too.
Passengers who were meant to travel from T1 or T2 were advised not to go to the airport.
Manchester Airport has issued its travel update to all passengers affected by yesterday’s power cut / Credit: Natali Quijano | Suhyeon Choi (via Unsplash)
All flights from both terminals were cancelled “until further notice”, and while those passengers who had already checked-in for their flights were expected to see be able to travel later in the day, they were told they would likely face delays due to a wide range of backlogged issues airport-wide.
Manchester Airport’s managing director, Chris Woodroofe, continued to keep all affected passengers updated throughout the day.
Now, with the dust settled and the flight chaos of yesterday hopefully a thing of the past, Manchester Airport has issued its latest statement addressing the expected travel schedule for today, and, most-notably, apologising to everyone who experienced disruption of any kind, at at any point, yesterday.
The latest statement on the airport’s website reads: “We would like to apologise to all those affected by the disruption in Terminals 1 and 2 today.
ℹ️ 23.06.24 – 9pm
Final update for passengers travelling from Manchester Airport today and tomorrow.
“Today’s schedule is expected to run as usual with no further disruption, so passengers should plan to travel to the airport as normal, checking in two hours ahead of their flight for short-haul, and three hours for long-haul, but it is always advisable to check the status of your flight before you travel to the airport.
“Airlines will be in touch with passengers to rearrange cancelled flights as we work with airlines, their baggage handling agents, and other partners to make sure passengers whose bags did not make it onto their flights are reunited with their belongings as soon as possible.”
The airport also thanked passengers for their “patience” in its latest statement.
Thanks and appreciation was also shown by the airport to all its staff, airlines, and onsite partners for their “hard work and resilience”.
Featured Image – Albert Bridge (via Pxhere / Geograph)
Travel & Tourism
Coronation Street-themed tram travelling around Greater Manchester officially hits the tracks
Emily Sergeant
A special themed tram celebrating the greatest TV soap of all time has officially hit the Metrolink tracks today.
And it’s “the most Manc tram ever” too, apparently.
It’s pretty well-known at this point that Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) constantly gets contacted by Coronation Street fans asking where the TV show’s dedicated tram stop is – which doesn’t actually exist, by the way – and is not helped by the fact there’s a CGI tram in the programme’s titles and a ‘tram stop’ on the soap’s set too.
In fact, after the infamous tram crash in 2010’s 50th Anniversary episode, TfGM had almost 300 queries asking if the trams were still running in Manchester… genuinely.
Over here in the ‘real world’, fans looking to head to the Coronation Street Experience for a special visit of the show’s set will need to hop off at the nearest stop, which is the IWM North, just a short wander away – but as of today (19 June), all that has now changed.
A special Coronation Street-themed tram has officially hit the Metrolink tracks / Credit: ITV Studios
That’s because, in true Corrie style,ITV Studios has proudly revealed what it’s calling “the most Manc transport ever” with the launch of the first-ever ‘Coronation Street Experience’ tram.
The unique homage to the show will meander across the Metrolink network for the next 12 months.
Created using special visuals from Manchester-based agency, Meanwhile, the so-called ‘Insta-trammable’ tram can be seen all dressed-up with gorgeous illustrations from the cobbles to give passengers the change to head to Rochdale through the legendary ‘Rovers doors’, arrive at Kingsway through the Kabin, make their way to the Velopark via Vera and Jack’s infamously-clad ‘No. 9 door’, or rock up at Radcliffe through the entrance to Roys Rolls.
As summer settles on our city, the ITV and TfGM teams also briefly snuck into the ‘real world’ earlier on today to turn the IWM Metrolink stop into ‘Weatherfield North’, especially for the themed tram’s official launch.
It’ll be travelling across Greater Manchester from today for the next 12 months / Credit: TfGM
“We’ve got our very own Weatherfield tram stop, where our characters catch a handy tram ‘into town’, and we’ve even very-occasionally got a virtual tram going past over our bridge, commented John Whiston, who is the MD for Continuing Drama at ITV Studios, as the tram officially hit the region’s tracks today.
“However, we’ve never actually ventured onto Manchester’s Metrolink other than fictionally, so it’s exciting that an actual tram will sport some fine Coronation Street livery.”
Mr Whiston added that the point of the new themed tram is to show visitors just “how easy it is to journey to the Coronation Street Experience on a real tram.”
Urging Mancs and Greater Manchester visitors to “keep an eye out” for the new Corrie-themed tram across the Metrolink network over the next 12 months, Pete Sommers, who is TfGM’s Interim Metrolink Network Director, added: “Metrolink, like Corrie, is an iconic symbol of Greater Manchester that has gone from strength to strength over the years, so we are delighted to be supporting ITV Studios and the Coronation Street Experience.
“Passengers will also have the chance to board the Corrie-themed tram out on the network over the coming months, so I’d urge people to keep an eye out.”