'JASMINE', a female cub was rescued on 17.01.04, just a few months before Guna. Today she is 2 years and 6 months old and she is the most photogenic and charming of our bears naturally inquisitive, naughty and cuddly. She came to us weighing 2.25 kg and was the size of a small puppy. Today she is a compact 66 kg and extremely active.
Jasmine retains the deepest of bonds with mama bear and her keeper Srikantha, and at 66 kg still wants to sit in our laps, climb onto our shoulders, and hold us in a bear hug. In the wild sloth Bear cubs stay with their mothers for close to two and a half years, learning skills of survival. This learning and growing up in natural surroundings has been denied to Jasmine and her fellow cubs. But Jasmine along with her 'siblings'- Aruni, Balika, Guna, Mowgli and Bagheera- have the closest of bonds with us.
The keepers lovingly call her "Jumping Jasmine" because she can leap straight onto their backs while they clean the pond or rake the leaves in the enclosures, and her agility is well known. She has all her canines and teeth intact and her face is calm and affectionate at all times. Her morning breakfast is 3 kg wheat and milk porridge 300 gm honey and fruits such as mangoes, apples, pineapples and watermelons. Her evening meal is cooked soybeans, rotis made from several grains, honey and eggs. She has been vaccinated against rabies and leptospirosis and is also de-wormed regularly so that the parasite loads are under control.
Jasmine was named after a sweet smelling flower that is offered in our temples and women like to grow around their houses; we cannot help feeling Jasmine was named very rightly.