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Today, Friday 24 July, two endangered snow leopards went on show at RZSS Highland Wildlife Park. The only place in Scotland where the stunning species can be seen, the hope is that the pair will eventually have cubs and help to increase the worldwide population of these big cats.
This news comes in the same month that the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland – owners of RZSS Highland Wildlife Park – signed a three year agreement with the Snow Leopard Trust and Nordens Ark in Sweden, coordinators of the overarching European breeding programme. The agreement is a joint project focusing on Pallas’s cats and snow leopards and will carry out field research to aid future conservation efforts of the species, as well as to act as an educational tool.
The male snow leopard, Chan, came to the Park from Zoo Krefeld in Germany, whilst the female, Animesh, arrived this week from Marwell Zoo in England. Both leopards are now two years of age. Known as “the mountain ghost”, snow leopards are masters of camouflage as their fur is white and smoky grey, speckled with dark-grey to black spots and rosettes, which allows them to blend into their natural surroundings. Both Chan and Animesh have thick coats and thick tails of around three feet long, which they can use in the winter to wrap around themselves. Animesh, means “bright or open-eyed” in Hindi.
Douglas Richardson, Head of Living Collections at RZSS Highland Wildlife Park, said:
“The addition of this magnificent species to the Park is both exciting for our visitors and a wonderful addition to our collection which specialises in cold weather adapted species. Snow leopards are Endangered and it is both a privilege and a serious responsibility to have a pair of these cats in our care. We have a recognised level of expertise in managing and breeding a range of wild cat species and we anticipate that we will be successful in breeding from Chan and Animesh and add to the success of the coordinated breeding programme, of which we are a part.”
As snow leopards inhabitant high and rugged mountainous terrain in the wild, the location for their new home has been specifically selected as it is a grassy cliff that overlooks the Spey and the Cairngorm Mountains. The snow leopards’ new home is in two parts with the leopards currently housed in a pair of very large, aviary-style enclosures at the top of the hill. The primary exhibit that is a grassy plateau that then drops down the face of the cliff and levels out with the public walkway at the bottom is currently being built. The leopards can be seen in the top enclosures, but due to them being new arrivals, it may be a little while before they begin to readily show themselves.
Snow leopard populations are believed to have declined by at least 20% over the last 16 years as a result of habitat loss and lack of animals to prey on, as well as poaching and retaliatory killings by farmers for preying on livestock. It is estimated that 3,500 to 7,000 are left in the wild, whilst there are about 400 in the international managed zoo population. Snow leopards are found in the high, craggy mountains of Central Asia at altitudes of 9,800 to 17,000 feet. Their range spans areas an arc from the mountainous regions of western Mongolia, through the Hindu Kush, along the Himalayas and north into central China. The species is specifically adapted to living in cold and mountainous environments, with thick fur, smallish stocky bodies and wide paws which act as snow shoes to evenly distribute their weight for walking on snow, as well as a long, thick bushy tail which is the length of its body.