During the last week of May, our field researchers began to observe some interesting behavior in two of the female snow leopards in our long-term ecological study. Anu and Lasya had started to restrict their movements significantly, and we began to suspect that the two were pregnant and looking for den sites.
We have been monitoring the two cats since we first noticed this pattern, and were able to identify the sites they had chosen to give birth. On June 21st, snow leopard expert Orjan, field researcher Sumbe and their team set out to investigate the sites in hopes of catching a glimpse of wild cubs.
We have heard back from the field, and are thrilled to report that Anu has had one cub and Lasya has had two cubs! They both picked excellent den sites only a few kilometers away from each other–the perfect snow leopard nursery. Both sites are close to water and herds of wild prey, and all three cubs looked healthy and well taken care of.
To get a more detailed description of this event, please read our public press release.
Photo courtesy of Snow Leopard Trust/Panthera
Such exciting news! I can hardly wait to see the pictures!
Congratulations on getting cubs into this ground breaking research project, I believe this is a world first. Not only will it be great to watch them grow but also the data you get will help conservation programs be more successful – awesome work 🙂
Best regards, Sibylle
great great news ………. Congratulations …..
Regards Prashant
Its a great news and as a SLN family member I welcome three new born cubs to researcher’s project area as it would help to to solve the mystery of nursing the most elusive creature of cold deserts and would definitely be a milestone in the conservation of’ King Of Temperate ‘ region.It would provide /help to know many hidden facts about the life of these majestic creatures.
How often does it happen that two mothers would pick birthing sites in such close proximity to each other? Is that unusual? it is quite amazing. Girls (including snow leopard girls) rule! Can’t wait to see the little kitties!
Bibi in Boston
Hi Bibi, this is the first time that we have ever encountered cubs in the wild, so we don’t know if the den site proximity was coincidental or not. We will be learning a lot from this experience, so maybe we will know more details on this very question soon 🙂 Thanks!
Excellent news , hopefully more will arrive too. Cheers Chris