Snow Leopard Gives Birth To Three Cubs Zurich Zoo

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) A snow leopard has given birth to three cubs at Zurich zoo. This content was published on July 10, 2025 - 13:43 2 minutes Keystone-SDA

• Deutsch de Schneeleopardin bringt im Zoo Zürich drei Fellknäuel zur Welt Original Read more: Schneeleopardin bringt im Zoo Zürich drei Fellknäuel zur Wel

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

he two-month-old males are now starting to explore the Panthera enclosure. They don't have names yet.

The snow leopards were born on 9 May in a specially equipped whelping box, Zurich Zoo announced on Thursday. At birth, they were still blind and deaf – but their coats were already marked with the typical dark rosettes and spots.

In the beginning, this was to protect them from predators so that they would not be spotted at a distance. Later, this colouring provides optimal camouflage when hunting in the high mountains of Central Asia.

In the meantime, the cubs are already two months old and independently exploring their habitat. For the time being, they are exploring the mountains. Over the next few weeks, they will be introduced to the three other areas of the habitat: deciduous forest and dry forest.

Sixteen metre leaps

The snow leopard, which can jump up to 16 metres, is an endangered species. According to Zurich Zoo, there are only around 3,000 sexually mature animals left in the wild today.

They are hunted for their particularly long and thick fur – the thickest of all cat species – as well as for various body parts that are used in traditional medicine.

To ensure that the snow leopard does not become extinct, offspring are needed as part of the European Conservation Breeding Programme. The internationally coordinated breeding programme maintains a stable reserve population.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at ...

Popular Stories More Foreign Affairs In Switzerland four out of ten people have a migrant background – who are they? Read more: In Switzerland four out of ten people have a migrant background – who are they

MENAFN10072025000210011054ID1109785918