Happy Birthday, Ivory!

  • Ivory, the world’s oldest black leopard, lives in Lockwood Valley. [Steve Martin’s Working Wildlife photo]

    Ivory, the world’s oldest black leopard, lives in Lockwood Valley. [Steve Martin’s Working Wildlife photo]

By Patric Hedlund

The oldest black leopard in the world had his birthday in Lockwood Valley this week. The Guinness World Records organization annointed him the world’s oldest black leopard after he turned 23 years old in 2014.

Ivory was raised…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Ivory, the world’s oldest black leopard, lives in Lockwood Valley.

Ivory, the black leopard, Left–as a kitten; Center–as a youngster; Above–in his prime; and Right–as “an old man” just before his 24th birthday

Left, top: Steve and Donna Martin at their ranch where (far left) Ivory is looking noble as he relaxes in the grass as a retired performer; Above, Steve and Donna Martin work with Ivory on a film location. He has starred in the Jungle Book movies, True Blood TV series, 90210, other TV shows, many commercials and music videos. He’s worked with stars such as Usher, 50 Cent and Angelina Jolie. Left: small photo of Donna Martin with Ivory’s sister, Crystal. The siblings were both born in Florida in captivity on September 23, 1991, just two years after Donna and Steve Martin were married. They raised the two cubs like children.

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This is part of the September 25, 2015 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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