.; ,

By V,nod ,q,sh 1.- F. S PadmaD,reclo Zoo/ag/ca

'vald

Persia and both cubs enjoy their spaciousnatural habitat enclosure at Darjeeling Zoo

;nformed us that Persia had settled down afterthe second cub was born and, her heavy flufiytail curled around her cubs. was nursing heroffspring.

Ever since their arrival at our Park the adultsnow-leopards had been handled with extremecare and personal attention such that an intimatetrust and rapport had been succe$sfully establishedbetween them and their keepers. The level ofmutual trust can be gauged from the fact thatPersia did not resent the presence of humanobservers even du ring parturition, enabling us tomake direct visual observations and record themother's behaviour during end afterof cubs; nor did she fee I --

proximity of the observer so astubs. However, 8S a precaut..on,the lone observer was allowed toduring the period. At 11-45 .p. m., hadsettled down with her cubs, I went her.She responded to my presence'and relaxed, nursing her cubs who satwith their tiny mouths attached to her teats.all appearances, everything was in order and therewas no cause for any alarm. Even the other pairof snow-leopards seemed to have sensed thevulnerability of the situation;.Jor unlike their usualboistrous selves, t~ .at .tDQ8ther in the roomopposite to Persia's breeding, chamber. Quietivwatching the happenings eround them. Although,they used to jump around, chase each other end play

Zoo's Print November 1989

;he first paIr J' Snow ieoparas recelved t'..aur P"rk as a breeairlg loan In 1 ~86 is vet -:csucceed "'hree time;; ,he PiJlr have !;UCC~SsfUI!cmatea and Ihe mother concelv&O Du! th-" CUDScould not survive However. with the birtn of thesnow leopara cubs on 20th Mav 1989 India hasbecome the firsr sOuth Astan country ever tosucceed In captlve oreedin\,l oi Snow-leopardsThe news of tfle birth of Snow leopards. heretherefore, sent a wave of elation in the hearts ofall those who understand Snow leopards.

CJIgn'maKlftha'

;;;allAm,

What was more Important for us at thatmoment, however, was to have the mother takecare of the cubs Hand-rearing can be only apaar substitute tor the care that a mother wouldgive to her young ones. The survival of the cubsbelng uppermost in our minds, i! became a matter01 grave cancern for us to discern the factors thatcould contribute to the unwanted .

mother abandonlng her cubs. Very01 Snow leopard behaviour and theavailable to us did not permit us aunderstanding of the sensitive nature ,animals

Persia carries her cubs in the typical fashionDarjeeling offers a different set of environ-

mental variables than those found in the zooswhere captive breeding of Snow leopards hadtaken place. For exiJmple. unlike other zons whereSnow leopards have been bred in caPtivitv.Darjeeling ja a high rainfall area. Snowfall is

Snow Leopard. in Captivity

The success in captive breeding of snow-leopards is alandmark in Zoo Management inIndia. According to the authentic records availablelthe Snow leopard was first exhibited in 1891 atlondon Zoo. Since then the beautiful grey-whitebig cat haI always taken a prize position amongthe zoo exhibits all over the world. The oldestrecord of the birth of snow leopard cubs in captivitydates back to 1910 when a wild caught femalesnow leopard gave blrth to two cubs at Breslauin Poland, hut the breeding of Snow leopards hasalways proved difficult It was only 35 years laterthat another snow-leopard blrth was recorded.In 1945 two cubs were born at Brookfield Zoo inUSA, hut the cubs did not survive. The nextrecord was made in 1956 at Copenhagen Zoo inDenmark. Not only do the records indicate thedifficulty in breeding Snow leopards but theremarks made by the Chinese experts at the firstsuccess in captive breeding of the Snow leopardsin China in 1984 also reiterate it. In 19B4 onlyone of the fifteen zoos maintaining a stock of35 Snow leopards in captivity succeeded in captivebreeding of the rare animals. The Chinese expertsdescribed the success as folio ws:

"It has been more difficult to keep and tobreed snow-leopards than the giant pandas,Ailufopoda melanoluca, in captivity. It tookaperiod of eight year. from 1955 on, to

.succeed in breeding the giant pandas, butthirty years to breed Snow leopards in aChinese zoo."!

The cubs peer out of their safe den at Director.Rishi for a photo

NovefT'ber 19892Zoo's Print

~ ' ~~Tne ! "YC :J,iOo'lt -.eooaras nac 'le'Jer ieer -=0:;

other untll thev were shlpoea TO Inola .LOOSArvatlOns on Kashl and V'lsna nad InOIC(!rrl'.that these Öl:.] cats develop 8 verv In!lma!", ,,-.fT,ore or iess oetmanent assoc:atlor: thd': iS ;10!Jmited ,a The perl Ja Of cour! hlG aniv ManK "1acbeen verv iltjrV:>LJ5 Ir. hl5 new erll/lronmen t d"-wrang handllnq could have r8sulted In hiS rejectln-;;Persia a1' a crltlcal time However. oasing ou'technlque on the clues obtained trom t~ log-boCksof I<ashi and Visna we had succeeded In maklngtne two new corners accept each other as compatiblemales withln !ha first fortnight of their arrivalal Darjeellng; Ihe mating took place du ring thethlrd week of thelr stay at PN HZP. Thereafterthe two soow leopards became more or lessinseparable companions However, in order toavoid injury to Persla during the advanced stageof her oregnancv, Hank was kept in aseparateroom, albeit within touching distance of each other.

The first solid load. This cub may have" bit off more than she can chew"

virtually not experienced; winters are not as coldas in the other zoos. Moreover. the coat of thesnow leopard is snow-proof bur not rain-proof.and a wet coat can make them extremely vulnerableto Pneumonie. They do not like wet ground and

dew covering the floor of theirth.m from coming out of

Habituallv snow-leopard is a cleandoes not like to defecate in the

it is housed. The moisture andoutdoor enclosure contributed to

of constipation andWe had to find

to these and many other similarusually encountered in the manage-

ment of other carnivores.

Close Observa'tion and CarefulManagemen't

I hadof round th. clock monitoring

salient indicators of animalth. keepers and other statt in

making observations and. in May1988. started recording observations on theb.haviour of Ka~hi and Visna. the pair of snow-leopards acquired in 1986 as breeding loan tramEuropean zoos. With the arrival of Hank andPersia tram USA in January 1989, a similarobservation log book 'had been introduced tor thenew pair as weil, Although Kashi and Visna hadnot bred observations

gave us a wealthprogrammed

to Persia on their arrival

of

Close observation and careful management byinterested and caring statt breeds success in breeding.

The selectlon of Aoom no. 4 as the breedingden after Persia had exhibited her disapproval ofthe breeding hut by pushing it away was alsobased on the clues obt.ined from the logbooks.Similarly. allowing Persia acce.s to two roomsinstead of confining her to only her breeding denwas also based on such ob..rvations. Persiaused one of the rooms as the nursery tor her cubsand kept it meticulously clean while the otherroom was used tor taking her food and as abutter between Hank and the snow-leopard cubs.The answer to the problem of making the mothertake Gare of her own cubs wal also given by theclues offered by the observation logbooks.

As tar as the mother's acceptance of the cubswas concerned the first 24 hfurs were exrremelycritical. but the next 48 hours wer. also considered

important,nature of this species.sharply to .ny unusual

~ ;",

November 1989Zoo's Print 3

~

reasori tne area Nas \f!r!Uaf!V sealed off ror ever'!(Kind .:)f V'Sltor ~ on:v one abserver at a time \ll.3Soermitted to be near ner The breeding room nacbeen darkened and onl" the supervisor. keepersof snow-leopards and the !wa officers. with whomPersia had develooed a good rapport were permittedta Vlsit the Snow-leopard house The sense cfsecurlty these measures had generated in her mindwas reflected in Pers... continuing to nurse hercubs ti 1I the initial critical period was over.

~For the first two days we did not heer cubs

calling. Most of the time Persia keot the CUßSnext to her bodv and the reassuring warmth keprthem Quiet. Bur thereafter, whenever she roseto take her food, the cubs would start call1ng,compelling her to retUin to them without eating.Persla took the pIece of blanket that hung acrossthe sliding doof of her room and used Ir as asubstItute mother du ring the period she was awaytram her cubs tor takjng her food She would

~.Jrse her cubs °,, the blanket and after they dozed~, she would ,ise and :,,;)(e her food. The cubs

ook the warmth and texture of the blanket to be apart of their mother's body and remained Quiet.She continued to use the blanket till the cubsstarted following her wherever she went. Theblanket was pushed away by her later on.

Usha and Poornima...a precious gift

After this incident I was sure that Persia hadaccepted her cubs and her environment. includingher human attendants.

The tubs are now more than three months old,balls of soft tur thaI tumble (Jut bouncing afterthelr mather CIS Persia comes out of her room everymorning to plav wlth them in the outdoor enclosure,80th are female and have been named Usha ar,dPoornima. They are a precious gift of the Snowleopard 8reeding Project and a pleasure to w8tch.The success in caPtive breeding of the rare bigcat has provided us with a precious opportunityto study the piirental care and other aspects ofSnow-leooard behaviour -otherwise difficult tostudy In the natural habitat -and a hoDe that wemay someday better understand the species thatis now on the verge of extinctlon in the Willd-sweptwilderness of the trans-Himalayan snow-peilkedranges, and save it tor posterity.

The cubs had been born with their eyes closed.On th. ninth day their eyes had opened and theylooked around their little world with smoke-blueeyes. I S8t on a stool close to the front door ofPersia's breeding roClm while she took her foodin the neighbouring room. The cubs toddled overto where I sat end, after looktng et me with theirinnocent eyes started giving distr..s calls. Thesecella are unlike the diatress ca"s of the tig.r orleopard cubs and can be described as some whatlike the high-pitched single note calls of theFire-breasted flower pecker. Persia came back andlooked at me. I fully expected her to demonstreteher resentment at my proximity to her cubs andwas ready to jump away at the first sign of

Ct1gression, for SM could easily have hooked meclos. to her by pushing her paw out and usingher claws. But to my great relief end a verypleasant surprise, ahe licked her cubs to lilence.looked up at me ag8in, gave her 'prusten' ca 1I8 number of firnes-all the time Itaring info myeyes-and, leaving her cubs near me, returned toher feed. I feit grateful to her for the trust shehad exhibited by leaving her cubs in my custody!

References

1. Blomqvist, L. 1988. Snow Leooard Register 5.Int. Ped. Book of Snow leopard 5. He/sinkiOP 72-139.

2. Zhi-yen. Z. 1988. The First success in BreedingSnow leoP8rds 5. Helsinki. PO. 57-60.

A news letter all about SnoN Leopards publishedby an organisation all about Snow Leopards, Seepage 24.

Zoo', Print 23 November 1989