The Toledo Zoo’s baby snow leopard is now on exhibit.
Babochka, which means “butterfly” in Russian, went on exhibit for the first time Friday morning with her mother, Greta, the Tiger Terrace area of the zoo. The pair has been off exhibit together since the cub, called Babs for short, was born May 25.
Greta and the cub's father, Shishir, were imported from two Scandinavian zoos in early 2017 to begin a new bloodline in North America. Their first cub, Dariga, was born June 8, 2017, and transferred in January to the Bronx Zoo.
Snow leopards are listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources' Red List.
Panthera, an international conservation group dedicated to big cat species, estimates there are between 4,500 and 10,000 wild snow leopards. But the cats, nicknamed "mountain ghosts," are notoriously elusive and live in extremely harsh environments at high altitude in central and south Asia, making population surveys very difficult.
Their numbers are declining because of poaching, human encroachment and conflict, and climate change, according to the World Wide Fund For Nature, formerly the World Wildlife Fund.
First Published September 13, 2019, 4:31 p.m.
