spancolor: #ff0066""divtext-align: center""Bronx Zoo Provides New Home for Pakistani Snow Leopard
United States, Pakistan begin new conservation collaboration
By Cecelia Martin
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- “Leo” the leopard is taking up residence in an esteemed American zoo. The Pakistani government officially loaned the young male snow leopard to the Bronx Zoo in New York in an arrangement formalized August 8 at a send-off ceremony in Islamabad, Pakistan. Leo will be temporarily housed at the U.S. zoo as part of an international species conservation program to breed endangered wildlife in captivity.
The transfer of the orphaned snow leopard from Pakistan to the United States is the result of efforts by several conservation groups working with the two governments. At the ceremony, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Ryan C. Crocker remarked, “The successful transfer of this snow leopard to the Bronx Zoo is an impressive example of trans-continental, public-private collaboration.”
The snow leopard inhabits the high mountain ranges and plateaus of South and Central Asia. Often poached for its beautifully marked fur, it is also threatened by habitat degradation. It is listed on the World Conservation Union’s Red List of Threatened Species. Although the snow leopard is protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the legislation is weakly enforced.
HOW IT STARTED
A shepherd in the Naltar Valley of Pakistan discovered the orphaned snow leopard cub in July 2005. The shepherd notified the World Wide Fund for Nature's Pakistan office in Gilgit, and a team of specialists traveled to Naltar Valley to evaluate the cub. They determined that Leo was healthy and approximately seven weeks old.
Since then, the government of Pakistan and the Northern Areas Administration provided shelter and veterinary care for Leo. In the wild, snow leopards typically stay with their mothers during their first 18 to 22 months. Because he was orphaned so young, Leo has not developed the survival skills he would have learned in the wild, and experts fear he would not survive in the wild if he were released.
Initially it was thought that Leo could remain in Pakistan, but there are no facilities equipped with the technical expertise and necessary resources to properly care for Leo on a long-term basis.
FINDING A HOME
The World Conservation Union-Pakistan stepped in, and together with the Pakistani government determined that the best option was to lend Leo to a zoo abroad as part of a captive breeding program. Such programs are meant to promote conservation, biodiversity, and rehabilitation of endangered species around the world.
The Bronx Zoo in New York is ideal because it has a snow leopard habitat and is one of the few conservation centers participating in World Conservation Union Species Survival Plan breeding program for snow leopards. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), whose headquarters is at the Bronx Zoo, will supply training and technical assistance to the Pakistani animal care professionals who will be Leo’s caretakers upon his eventual return from the United States. WCS has also offered to help establish a snow leopard facility in Pakistan to care for future snow leopard orphans. This cooperation and research opportunity could yield valuable information to wildlife conservationists.
“Snow leopards hold a special place in Bronx Zoo history,” according to the Bronx Zoo Web site. “These beautiful and endangered cats were first exhibited at the zoo in 1903, making it the first zoo in the western hemisphere to exhibit them … with 82 cubs born between 1966 to 1999.” The Bronx Zoo first opened to the public in 1899 and receives more than 4 million visitors annually.
The 13-month-old Leo, who now weighs 25 kilos and is 53 centimeters tall, is scheduled to depart for the United States on August 9. He will join four male and eight female snow leopards currently at the zoo.
“This truly is a win-win for all involved," Ambassador Crocker said. "The U.S. government is pleased to have played a role supporting Pakistan’s efforts to protect this endangered species; the government of Pakistan will receive training and technical assistance; the Bronx Zoo will have the opportunity to study this rare animal; and the snow leopard gets to go on an expenses-paid journey to the United States, where his only responsibilities will be eating, growing, and breeding snow leopard cubs. Maybe the snow leopard is the biggest winner of all.”
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
