A Social Media Sensation! “Morioka City Zoo ZOOMO”: The Puma Family’s Eventful “Behind-the-Scenes Parenting Stories”

2026-07-07

July 29, ’25: A photo taken after Caff was discharged from the veterinary hospital, finally showing the whole family together. From left: Tzi, Nina, Caff, and Shedar. They’re peering curiously out of the maternity room through the open door (from *The Puma Family*)

They’ve always been considered rather unremarkable…

When it comes to popular zoo animals, lions, elephants, and giraffes are the classics. However, for some reason, pumas are the stars at “Morioka City Animal Park ZOOMO” in Iwate Prefecture. To be honest, until now, it’s been rare to hear people say things like, “Let’s go to the zoo to see the pumas!” or “Pumas are my favorite animals ♡.”

Yuko Yamamoto, the puma keeper at ZOOMO, used to lament their lack of recognition.

“Pumas don’t have any patterns on their fur, and their calls—like ‘meow’ or ‘gyaaah’—sound just like a cat’s, so they don’t come across as very impressive.Because they’re inevitably rather plain, the reality was that visitors would often ask, ‘Where are the lions?’ or ‘Don’t you have any tigers?’ In reality, they’re very charming animals with graceful movements and the ability to jump high enough to reach a giraffe’s head…”

Yet now, it is the puma that is driving ZOOMO’s popularity.If you take a look at the official online shop, the top spots are filled exclusively with puma merchandise. Furthermore, this past June, a book titled *The Puma Family* (Tatsumi Publishing), which chronicles the entire process of birth and parenting by ZOOMO’s pumas, was released. It has been a huge hit.

The spark that ignited this trend came from posts on ZOOMO’s official social media accounts. In 2020—the year after ZOOMO began caring for a male puma named “Tough”—the facility welcomed a female named “Nina” from a zoo in Shizuoka.On June 10, 2025, Nina finally gave birth to quintuplets. Since then, Mr. Yamamoto has reportedly posted daily updates on the official social media accounts for half a year, candidly sharing both the good and the bad as the cubs grew up.

“I think people generally have a strong image of zoos as ‘fun places.’ But in reality, illness, injury, and treatment are common occurrences. The main reason I started sharing this content was to help people better understand the animals and the work of the keepers by laying bare those negative aspects, as well as to build a relationship of trust with our fans.

In fact, since I shared some pretty shocking realities without holding back, fans were surprised, saying, ‘I didn’t expect you to go this far.’ But as I kept posting every day, everyone began to view daily events from the same perspective as us, thinking, ‘Well, these things happen with living creatures.’ On that basis, they started cheering for the pumas from the bottom of their hearts.”

On June 10, ’25, five cubs were born. However, three days later, three of them showed a sudden decline in physical strength, and two of them died (from *The Puma Family*)

Saved by Miss Nina

Let me explain this briefly. Five cubs were born to Tough and Nina. Unfortunately, two of them later died. However, there was no time to grieve. The top priority was to save another cub, a female named “Caf,” who was hovering between life and death.

Consequently, they opted for artificial rearing —a decision they “really didn’t want to make.” They had wanted to avoid artificial rearing because returning the cub to its mother carried significant risks. Even as they considered the worst-case scenario —that the mother might bite and kill a cub that smelled of humans —Caf was safely reunited with Nina.Since then, despite challenges such as a broken bone and a delicate dynamic with her mother, Caff has grown up healthy alongside her siblings, “Shedar” (male) and “Tzi” (female). Today, the sight of this happy family warms the hearts of visitors.

However, “The reason Kaff’s reunion went so well was solely because it was Nina,” says Ms. Yamamoto.

“If I had to describe Nina’s personality in one word, she’s a little lady (laughs). She used to refuse to eat meat unless it was sliced for her, and she’d leave the meat in the corner of a square plate, saying, ‘That’s hard to eat.’She also tends to leave the beak part of chicken behind, probably because it’s tough. Since she was raised with great care, she’s innocent, tomboyish, moody, and a bit cautious. She seems nervous, but she also has a carefree side. It was precisely because we understood Nina’s personality and had built a relationship with her caretaker that we were able to decide to bring Caff into the group.”

“We thought , ‘Since Nina is so easygoing and knows how to adapt her relationship with her caretakers, she’ll probably accept it even if we take Kaf away and bring him back again,’ which is why we decided to reunite them, ” they explained.

“If it had been the female puma we had before, I probably wouldn’t have brought the hand-raised cub back. She was a strong-willed animal who would hiss ‘Shh!’ at me just for making eye contact while she was raising her own cubs.

But considering that Caff will become a parent someday, spending time with his mother and siblings is absolutely essential. The fact that everything went so well this time was largely thanks to Nina’s personality. Of course, there are some things you just can’t know until you try, but it’s true that we had confidence in Nina.”

Caff, who is in the hospital with a broken bone, meows “Meow!” to ask for milk (from *The Puma Family*)

Nina’s Remarkable Motherly Instincts

When looking back, the first things that come to mind are all scenes where Nina’s personality really came through.

“When we returned Caff—who had been bottle-fed—to Nina, we didn’t do it all at once. At first, we’d bring him back only at night and take him back during the day.Normally, a mother puma would resist having her cub taken away. But while Nina was reluctant to hand him over at first, by about the third day, she’d quickly move to another room as soon as we arrived. It was like she was saying, ‘Okay, I’ll leave him with you again today’ (laughs). She seemed to fully understand the situation, and I thought she was such a smart girl.

When we returned Caff at night, we were worried she might be wary if he still smelled like humans, so we rubbed some straw from Nina’s bedroom onto Caff to transfer her scent to him. But Nina didn’t seem to mind much.When Caff came back, she’d grab him by the scruff of the neck and carry him to her room, as if to say, “Okay, okay, welcome back.”

But that’s not all. Since Caff had been bottle-fed for so long, he didn’t seem to recognize Nina as his mother, and whenever she tried to interfere , he’d hiss at her to warn her off.This threatening pose of Kafu’s became a hot topic on social media under the name “Kafu-emon,” but what’s amazing is that Nina never once fought back against this “Kafu-emon.”

“Nina basically just ignored it. She never rejected Caff or snapped back at him; she’d just act like nothing was happening and go back to paying attention to him. She was exactly like a mother skillfully handling a teenage girl. No matter how much he threatened her, it felt like she just couldn’t help but find Caff adorable.

Caf, too, is actually the type who acts tough outside but becomes a total mama’s boy the moment he’s indoors. I think Nina understood Caf’s “tough on the outside, soft on the inside” personality perfectly. I really think she’s a great mom.”

As winter draws to a close, the children have grown much stronger. From left: Caff, Shedar, Tzi, and Nina (Photo by Kagari, from *The Puma Family*)

The Baton of Life Is Passed On

A year has passed since they overcame various crises. This past June, the cubs finally celebrated their first birthdays. Typically, pumas begin to gradually become independent around one year of age. The time Nina and her cubs have together is now running short.

“For now, there haven’t been any particular changes. Sometimes the cubs play on their own as they please, other times they play with their siblings, and sometimes their mother joins them and they all romp around together. Usually, after a year or a year and a few months, the mother begins to wean her cubs, but there are no signs of that yet with Nina.

On the other hand, it’s becoming clear that the cubs can already manage on their own. In any case, sooner or later, they’ll each set off for different zoos. Of course, I feel a bit sad, but since our goal is for the cubs to eventually become parents themselves and carry on the legacy of their species, I want to send them off with pride.”

Normally, at ZOOMO, keeper assignments are rotated every three years, but due to renovation work and other factors, Mr. Yamamoto has been caring for Nina continuously for about six years since she arrived at ZOOMO.The bond of trust built through this long relationship is believed to be one of the reasons the artificial feeding and reintroduction were successful. I asked him what he would say to Nina now, having watched over her all this time.

“I’m proud of and respect her as a mother—it’s hard to believe this is her first time giving birth and raising cubs. With the cubs’ broken bones, we not only had to provide bottle-feeding but also repeatedly isolate them; I’m grateful she accepted our support. This baton of life will now be passed on to the cubs.

And I believe that a major factor in all of this was the calm, gentle, and resilient presence of Tuff, who accepted the strong-willed Nina. Since male pumas don’t participate in raising their young, they tend to remain in the background, but there’s no doubt that it’s thanks to Tuff that this wonderful family was formed!”