TIME FOR SOME LEOPARD LOVE
BioPark Zoo hopes sparks will fly between Sarani, 7, and Azeo, 16
BioPark Zoo gets a mate for its lone(ly) male snow leopard.
Love may be in the air at the ABQ BioPark Zoo, and just in time for Valentine’s Day.
Sarani, a 7-year-old snow leopard is the new mate for male Azeo, the zoo’s only other snow leopard. His former mate, Kachina, died last year.
Sarani came to Albuquerque from the Brookfield Zoo outside Chicago.
“Sarani is settling into her new home and doing well,” said Erin Flynn, ABQ BioPark mammal curator. “We’re happy to have her here and so very excited to continue our legacy of snow leopard conservation.”
As matches go, it’s not a done deal that the two will get along, “but it sure is our hope, and with any luck when breeding season comes around that we’ll have some activity,” Flynn said.
Sixteen-year-old Azeo has already sired 11 offspring with former mate Kachina.
In the wild, snow leopards are found in the colder mountain regions of Asia, from the southern end of the Himalayas to the northern end of southern Siberia, Flynn said. Among the countries in which snow leopards can be found are Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Pakistan Russia, Nepal and Mongolia.
Solitary and elusive, snow leopards are vulnerable to extinction due to poaching
and global climate change, “which impacts their habitats, including the prey animals that are their food source,” Flynn said. It is estimated that there are no more than 10,000 snow leopards in the wild.
Snow leopards that live beyond infancy in the wild have a lifespan of 10-12 years; animals in captivity in facilities accredited by the North American Association of Zoos and Aquariums live just over 15 years, she said.
These majestic cats at maturity can weigh from 75-100 pounds and stand up to 2.5 feet tall, with a body length of 3.5 feet and a tail about the same length.
According to the National Geographic Society, snow leopards have powerful legs and can leap 50 feet. They make sounds similar to other large cats, including a purr, mew, hiss, growl, moan and yowl. They do not, however, roar, and instead make a puffing sound called a chuff.