Snow leopard cubs make den at Dublin Zoo

THE STAR attraction at Dublin Zoo this month is a pair of snow leopard cubs, which have just gone on show.

Last September, the Knock Marriage Bureau for snow leopards, otherwise known as the studbook holders, decided that Ciara, the Zoo’s female snow leopard, should be wed. Her suitor, it was decided, would be Tito from Helsinki Zoo and he was duly flown to Dublin ‘to walk the land’.

He settled in quickly and evidently likes his new home. There was a bit of a scare around Christmas time when a mysterious virus struck him. It was touch and go for a while, but he responded well to antibiotics. Ciara and her lover saw eye to eye, the nuptials took place and the act of consummation was observed.

According to team leader Gerry Creighton, it is very difficult to determine if a long-haired cat is pregnant. Pregnant animals put on weight but how do you weigh a snow leopard? Simple; you put a weighing platform, which can be monitored from outside, into her enclosure. Soon Ciara’s weight began to rise and the nail biting began. During her confinement (covered by Plan C of the VHI), she was monitored constantly on closed circuit television. Three cubs, a male and two females, were born on May 4.

Ciara was breeding for the first time and, probably through inexperience, she accidentally crushed the male cub. However, according to Gerry, she has proved to be an excellent mother and the two little daughters are hale and hearty. They have been given romantic Tibetan names; ‘Llhamo’ means ‘goddess’ and ‘Jampul’ means ‘gentle’.

Baby snow leopards weigh about 300 grammes at birth and don’t open their eyes for 13 days. They can venture out of the den after six or seven weeks. The Dublin cubs had their inoculations recently and are now old enough to meet the public. Curiosity, famously killed the cat and the two babies, now out in the open air, are busy exploring their surroundings.

The snow leopard, one of the most beautiful creatures on Earth, is not a very large cat; a male might weigh up to 38 kilos. It lives in the Himalayas and in the mountains of Central Asia. When an Irish cat is born white, it is always called Pongar Bán, but the snow leopard’s coat of grey-white fur is no accident of birth. It insulates its owner from the intense cold and provides camouflage against the snow.

Nor is the snow leopard just a white version of the common leopard; the two animals are not that closely related. The snow leopard is a much more specialised animal and belongs in a genus all of its own. Its skull shape is different from that of the commoner cousin and the tail is longer. Like a tightrope walker using a pole for balance, the tail helps this agile cat to negotiate the treacherous cliffs of its rugged mountain homeland. It can leap up to 18 metres, more than twice the distance covered by a world class human long-jumper. Wrapped around the body, the tail also serves as a thick scarf, covering the mouth and nostrils when the cat sleeps. The broad furry footpads act as snowshoes, leaving tracks in the snow. The footprints can become larger when snow melts, giving rise to the myth of the Abominable Snowman. Strong chest-muscles, and a large nasal cavity, help the leopard to extract oxygen from the thin mountain air. These adaptations come at a price; the vocal apparatus is under-developed; snow leopards can’t roar like other big cats.

A stealth hunter, the snow leopard catches everything from mice and marmots to sheep and goats, which may be up to three times its own weight. Males are bigger than females. The social system is not well known but both sexes hold territories up to 100km in size. The dens are in caves and crevices in rock faces. Leopards lead solitary lives except during the mating season or when mothers are raising cubs. There may be up to five babies in a litter. The cubs go hunting with their mother when they are about three months old and stay with her throughout their first winter. In captivity, snow leopards have survived to the age of 21 but few live longer than 15 years. Life expectancy in the wild is likely to be much lower.

Like the tiger and the giant panda, this is one of the world’s most endangered mammals, hunted for its fur and for body parts, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine. An elusive animal, living in the most inaccessible terrain, it is very difficult to observe and almost impossible to census. There may be 3,000 to 7,000 snow leopards left in the wild.

The species does well in captivity; when I was taken backstage by Zoo director Leo Osterwegel, recently, mother and cubs were not in the least perturbed. Although there are some 480 snow leopards in zoos, about 240 of which are in the US, only about 28 pairs are able to participate in the international breeding programme. Leo is particularly pleased that the cubs are female, ensuring that Dublin Zoo, which has bred these cats in the past, will continue to make an important contribution to the snow leopard population. Tito is staying on in Dublin and more matings with Ciara are expected. Congratulations to Leo, Gerry and all of the team. Well done!