CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — The Metro Richmond Zoo recently announced they welcomed a baby snow leopard named Alakhai back in August.
Parents Elsa and Nitro welcomed Alakhai in a private den at the zoo on Aug. 5. She was a healthy 1.03 pounds when she was born.
The baby has spent the first few months bonding with her mom, and now she is old enough to explore outside of her habitat — where she can be seen by zoo visitors.
Snow leopard cubs are born helpless and with their eyes closed after a three-month gestational period. The Zoo said snow leopard cubs depend completely on their mother for care and protection, and the fathers are not involved in the rearing of young.
Cubs open their eyes around seven days old, and begin to start crawling and walking around after three to four weeks. In the wild, snow leopard cubs don’t venture out of their den until they are two to four months old, according to Zoo.
While Alakhai still nurses from her mom, she has started to eat some meat.
The snow leopard is listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and is considered endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. They are native to the mountain ranges of central and southeast Asia.
Snow leopard population estimates are difficult because of the leopard’s elusiveness, which has earned them the nickname of “ghosts of the mountains” by natives, the Zoo said. The best estimates place the population between 3,000 and 6,000 leopards in the wild.
The Metro Richmond Zoo participates with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ (AZA) species survival plan (SSP) for snow leopards to help protect this beautiful animal.
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