The Snow Leopards

For the first time in more than a decade, three Snow Leopard cubs have been born at Melbourne Zoo. We find out how the cubs are getting on.

WORDS Anna Webster

new baby is something to be celebrated, but it’s especially exciting when the new additions are as precious as the three Snow Leopard cubs that arrived in the early hours of 26 January at Melbourne Zoo. Now approaching their first birthday, the cubs have settled into their home and are growing bigger and braver with each passing month.

Miska and Kang-Ju’s story

Miska, the cubs’ mother, was brought to Melbourne Zoo in October 2017 from South Lakes Safari Zoo in Cumbria, England, as part of the European Endangered Species Programmes (EEP). The move was specifically arranged so she could breed with the cubs’ father Kang-Ju, who came to Melbourne at around the same time from Nürnberg Zoo in Germany. Both Miska and Kang-Ju were quite young when they first arrived in Melbourne and had never been paired with other Snow Leopards for breeding, so the team moved quite slowly through the process, says Keeper Meryl McGlone. Meryl and the rest of the Carnivores team at Melbourne Zoo began with what they call ‘soft intros’, where the cats were placed in neighbouring exhibits separated by mesh. They couldn’t make physical contact, but they could see, smell and respond to each other. Snow Leopards mate in spring, and in September last year Miska started showing signs of coming into oestrous — her fertile cycle — for the first time. The Keepers could tell this was happening largely because of Kang-Ju’s response to her; between the two exhibits there was increased scent marking, cheek rubbing and vocalising, and Kang-Ju was regularly performing the flehmen response, curling back his upper lip, closing his nostrils and inhaling through his mouth for several seconds. After a while, the Carnivores team put Miska and Kang-Ju together and were thrilled to see the cats get along so well and so quickly! When Miska failed to come back into oestrous, the team assumed she must be pregnant and installed what’s known as a cubbing box in her enclosure (the same one that could be seen on the live cam). The cubbing box was a safe and cosy place for Miska to give birth in and was installed with enough time for her to get used to and feel comfortable with her new space. Around three months later, Miska gave birth to three beautiful cubs: one boy and two girls.

Meet the cubs

“They’re all three very different Snow Leopards,” says Meryl. The Keepers have watched the cubs grow from three balls of fur in the cubbing box to boisterous young adolescents. “When they were in the cubbing box and we had the camera looking down on them, it was the markings on their backs that helped us tell them apart.” Now, says Meryl, the Keepers can tell the three apart by their face markings and individual personality traits. “Sikari (the male), is a little bit boisterous and he’s a guts. He eats all the food allthe time and so there’s no surprise that he’s the heaviest of all three of them,” says Meryl. His sister Asha is the boldest and will be the first to come over to the keepers. Whereas Manju is a little quieter – taking after her dad Kang-Ju – and will happily follow along with her siblings. Although the troop are active in the mornings, they will usually sleep in one big Snow Leopard pile during the day. ZN

All grown up

The first time the Keepers were able to properly meet and handle the cubs was at their first health check when they were eight weeks old. At this eight-week check-up, the Keepers gave the cubs their first vaccinations; inserted microchips; checked to make sure their eyes, ears and the rest of their parts had developed properly; and confirmed which cubs were male and which were female. Now weighing approximately 20 kilos each, the cubs are about three quarters of the size of a fully-grown adult Snow Leopard. Keepers have begun recall training with the cubs using a bell and delicious food treats. By teaching the ability to recall, keepers can easily move the Snow Leopards to different areas within their home (such as where they sleep at night) without interfering with the animals – Miska will respond at any time of day to these requests but the cubs currently require a little food to tempt them.

Did you know?

The gestation period for Snow Leopards is between 92 and 110 days, or approximately three months. Mothers can bear one to five cubs per litter, though two or three is the most common number. Cubs stay with their mother for 18 months to two years after they’re born.