ON THE COVER Melting Hearts and Bringing Hope
Meet the adorable snow leopard cubs
Adorable snow leopard cubs Khumbu and Koshi have a rather important task ahead of them – helping to save their own species from extinction!
The brothers were born nine months ago at The Big Cat Sanctuary in the heart of the Kent countryside to fiercely protective mum Laila and laid-back dad Yarko, after four years of trying to breed from the precious pair.
Head keeper Briony Smith, 35, explains that Laila and Yarko came to the sanctuary as part of the European Endangered Species Programme. Devoted keepers and staff were jubilant when Laila finally got pregnant last year. This is the first time snow leopard cubs have been bred at the sanctuary.
The cubs have grey and cream fur with distinctive spots,p, thick tails that wrap p around their sweet faces when sleeping, tiny fluffy ears and steely grey-blue eyes.
The Sanctuary ran a naming competition for the celebrity twins on social media and names were chosen based on their unique personalities.
Khumbu, the name of a Himalayan glacier, suits the slower and quieter cub, while Koshi, the name of a Himalayan river, suits his wild and active brother, who has grown into a fearless explorer.
“I had to make sure she was a good mum because it was her first litter”
However, from day one Briony worried about the cherished pair. Being motherreared, rather than handreared, the keepers aimed for minimal human intervention and watched the birth on the camera in the cubbing den.
“The first one was born at 7.15am and the second came at 8.30am on April 26, 2019. That was the beginning of intensive screen watching for me! It was tense and nerveracking checking if Laila was feeding them, cleaning them and caring for them. I had to make sure she was a good mum because it was her first litter and she was learning.
“She took to it really well. Laila had an amazing way of parcelling them up close to her belly. She would curl up in a ball with her back leg and tail over the top of the cubs so there was no way I could see them. It was so funny – for a long time she thought she was keeping a secret! She seemed to think we didn’t know about her cubs! Each newborn cub was tiny, weighing about 500 grams – just one pound.
“Before giving birth Laila was a placid, sociable cat but quickly developed ferocious maternal instincts and for days didn’t want to leave them, even to drink or eat.
“We didn’t want to go blazing in and disturb the mother and cub bonding. So we made observations from a distance with the camera and could see the cubs were feeding well and thriving.”
Khumbu and Koshi were weaned at nine weeks and given solid food and started wandering and exploring in different directions.
“When one cub tried to get out of the den, she’d gently drag him back, then the other one would try to climb out, and she would drag him back. They were a mischievous tag team keeping mum busy!” laughs Briony.
“We introduced a range of toys and they discovered each other as playmates and would wrestle and play together.
“Yarko got to know the boys at about five months. At first he was confused and clueless with these bolshie little cubs jumping all over him. But he soon became a tolerant dad!”
While some species of big cats can breed every few weeks, snow leopards just have one litter, due to living in an extremely cold mountainous terrain at high altitudes in the Himalayas.
Solitary hunters, they are shy and elusive, with superb camouflage against rocks and snow. Cubs leave their mother about the age of two to find their own territories.
Briony has been working as a keeper at the sanctuary for 15 years, having known since she was child, smitten with TheLionKing movie, that she wanted to devote her life to caring for big cats. After studying and working in film and television, she volunteered at the sanctuary for six years and was then employed on the staff and is now head keeper.
“The site has developed incredibly in the time I’ve been here with the number of cats and our ability to excel and spread the message about protecting these beautiful, endangered species.”
Little Khumbu and Koshi have a lofty destiny. They will go to other breeding facilities to meet females to boost the numbersb off snow leopards and give Laila and Yarko some grandbabies.
Briony says, “These little heroes are going off to save the world. In the big picture of breeding programmes around the world we see some endangered animals released into the wild while others are kept in captivity to safeguard species from extinction.”
And, after all, preventing extinction is the most important work of all.