On the left you see Dshamilja giving her cub, Gul’cha, a good tongue lashing. Dshamilja and Gul’cha live in Switzerland at the Zurich Zoo. The photographs were taken by Dr. Georges Barth.

Dshamilja lived in Kyrgyzstan where she was severely injured by poachers. She was rescued by Grupa Bars who named her. "Dshamilja" has been translated as the Arabic word for beauty. There is also a novel, Dshamilja by Chinghiz Aitmatov, a famous Kyrgiz author. It is set in Kyrgyzstan and is considered by many readers to be the most beautiful love story ever written.

Gul’cha is the name of a village in Kyrgyzstan. The new born animals in Zurich are always named after a place from their natural environment, a mountain, for instance, or a lake. The animals born in the same year are given a name beginning with the same letter. Gul’cha was born in 2006 when the letter was “G.”

We have more photos of Dshamilja.

We also have more photos of Gul’cha.

New photos of Dshamilja and her cub Indeever.