The giant jumping rat can leap almost three feet (one meter) into the air to avoid predators — namely the puma-like fossa which is actually related to the mongoose and the Madagascar ground boa.

In this Zoo Day video, AShe's 13 years old and her name means "pretty".leia Scott introduces us to Akisa, a Madagascar ground boa.

Zoo Knoxville welcomed seven new Madagascar tree boas on Wednesday in the first successful breeding of the species in the United States this year.