The latest attraction at Mexico City's Chapultepec Zoo is a seven-month-old female jaguar who was born in captivity.
It was donated by a breeding home for reproduction purposes.
The sturdy, spotted cat - which are the only roaring felines in the Americas - weighs 15kg and joins three other jaguars at the zoo.
"The jaguar is seven-months-old. It arrived at the zoo in good health and what we're doing with them, in a genomic laboratory we have in the zoo, is a study of genetic variation which would allow us to better understand the jaguar population, in order to better identify them in the country. The jaguar is a species which is present in the country in Mexico and also in Mesoamerica," said Environment Minister, Marta Delgado.
The cub, which still has to be named, is getting used to her new home while visitors admire her perched on the tree branch.
"We have success in the reproduction of jaguars. We currently have four in Chapultepec zoo and throughout the years, it's a species we have fortunately managed to successfully reproduce," said the director of the capital-area zoos and wildlife, Jose Bernal Stoopen.
Jaguars are powerful, solitary hunters that were revered by ancient cultures including the Aztecs and the Maya who believed they had supernatural powers.
Jaguars roam over a vast area ranging from northern Argentina in the south to the rugged borderland wildernesses of Arizona and New Mexico, where they were thought to have vanished until two confirmed sightings in 1996.
Only a handful have been sighted in the United States since then, and very little is known about their habits.
The US government placed the animals under Endangered Species Act protections in 1997. Since then, researchers using cameras set on remote trails have identified just a handful of individual animals, all males.
The jaguars, the only roaring cats in the Americas, are thought to breed in Mexico and roam up over the border.
In recent years, concern over the well-being of the US population has intensified as a program to build 670 miles of security fencing gathers speed along the nearly 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border with Mexico.
3 News / Reuters