There is a new animal calling the Charles Paddock Zoo its home.
The Zoo announced Friday the arrival of "Shelby" a 13-year-old female Fossa.
Shelby is out and ready for zoo guests to come and visit her in her new habitat.
Shelby is a Fossa Cryptoptocta ferox, and zoo officials say she came to the zoo from the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens through the Association of Zoo's & Aquariums (AZA) Species Survival Plan.
Zoo officials say Fossa lifespans are unknown in the wild but are known to live to up to 20 years in zoos. Fossa's are most closely related to a mongoose or civet.
The fossa is native only to the island nation of Madagascar off the coast of Africa and are the largest carnivores there. The locals pronounce the name "foo-sa" and "foosh".
Zoo officials say Foosa diets mainly consist of lemurs but they'll eat anything from small mammals to fish and birds. They say the fossa can be extremely smelly since they use scent as their main form of communication and do most of their vocalizing during mating season and pup season.
The fossa is classified as vulnerable with only about 2,500 left in the wilderness. The low numbers are due to loss of habitat, competition for food with introduced species and diseases like rabies, as well as threats from the villagers who see them as vermin.
To learn more about Shelby, and other events happening at the Zoo,click here.
