Meet Prince, a 6-month-old Geoffroy’s cat and the latest addition to Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s living collection.
A common wild cat in South America, Geoffroy’s cats (Leopardus geoffroyi) are the smallest member of the leopard family. Prince, who was born at Hawk Creek Wildlife Center in Buffalo, New York, to parents who are rescues, weighed in at about 4 pounds at the time of this photograph and is expected to gain only two additional pounds. He plays a lot like a domestic kitten, says Mallory Sickle, the museum’s assistant director of lifelong learning, except he has one adorable and distinguishing move: he stands up straight on his hind legs, an inherent behavior for Geoffroy’s cats native to grasslands, who need to peer over tall brush to scan the areas around them.
Named after the iconic musician, Prince arrived at the museum in February and is expected to make his first public appearance as an educational ambassador in April as part of a new, auditorium-style assembly program designed to travel to regional schools and other venues. The new outreach offering will include five animals from the museum’s living collection, a variety of pelts, skulls, and other touchable artifacts, and an appearance by one of the museum’s two enormous dinosaur puppets.
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