Kid Territory: Critters: Snow Leopards
Meat-eating snow leopards are fed a ground meat diet for carnivores on most days, but get a rabbit or sheep carcass twice a week. Here Amy uses her rough tongue to scrape meat off the bone.
Kilgore shows off his beautiful fur and the large paws snow leopards use for walking in snow. You can also see the little ragged edges on his ears where Amy has nibbled on them.
Amy shows how keeping clean is an important part of a cat’s day, whether a house cat or a snow leopard!
Sometimes keepers put enrichment items in the leopards’ enclosure. Here, Kilgore explores a new pine tree that “mysteriously” appeared.
Zoo Names:
Amy and Kilgore
Species:
Snow Leopards
Their Story
Everyone, San Diego Zoo visitors and keepers alike, is enthralled with our snow leopards. From the tip of their broad nose (which acts as a heating chamber for air) to the end of their long fluffy tail, they are extraordinarily beautiful cats. And since snow leopards, like most cats, are solitary, we are fortunate and delighted at how well our snow leopards get along. This means we can exhibit them together, rather than having them take turns being in the large enclosure.
Kilgore was born in 1985. (The oldest snow leopard recorded in zoos was 21 years old.) He is a little creaky but otherwise healthy, and kept young and active by his companion, Amy. She was born in 1994 and is in her prime. Kilgore is the first male she’s been with, so the keepers wondered how introductions would go. When Kilgore rubbed against the wire separating the cats, and Amy tried to nip his ears in a friendly fashion, keepers were relieved!
Kilgore is mellow and Amy has "cat-itude," so they are a good match. Usually male snow leopards are much larger than females, but ours both weigh about 100 pounds (45 kilograms). They are easy to tell apart because Kilgore has a very dark face, and the tips of his ears are missing from those "love bites." We hope that they will someday produce cubs.
Is it too warm for snow leopards in San Diego? Even though these Asian cats live at high elevations, they do great here. We do run cooling "misters" in the summer, and we provide heat lamps in the winter, because it gets chilly in the Zoo’s canyons. Just because they’re snow leopards doesn’t mean they necessarily like to be cold all the time!
Where You Can See Them
Come see Amy and Kilgore in the San Diego Zoo’s Cat Canyon, near Hunte Amphitheater. They are just around the corner on the "Cat Walk" from Orson the jaguar. Their enclosure features 70 tons (71 tonnes) of boulders, replicating their Himalayan mountain habitat, so they are well camouflaged. Look carefully all over the enclosure. Sometimes the cats are sitting right up front, and sometimes they are high in the back, in front of the mural.
