Zoo Welcomes Snow Leopard
LEOPARD BABY: Niko is Tulsa Zoo’s new 12-week-old snow leopard. On Aug. 7, large crowds greeted him for the first time in his temporary exhibit in the Robert J. LaFortune WildLIFE TREK Life in the Cold building.
On Aug. 7, the Tulsa Zoo welcomed 12-week-old Niko, an endangered snow leopard, into his new home in the Robert J. LaFortune WildLIFE Life in the Cold building.
The Life in the Cold exhibit is planned as a temporary home for Niko. The space, which was created for the Arctic foxes, is not suitable for a fully-grown snow leopard, says Joe Barkowski, vice president of animal conservation and science. Niko will move into a larger holding area within the zoo, and the Arctic foxes will return to their exhibit sometime this fall, based on Niko’s rate of growth.
Ranging in mountainous areas of Central Asia from Afghanistan to Kazakhstan and Russia to northern India and China, only 4,000-6,500 snow leopards are left in the wild due to poaching and habitat loss.
The Tulsa Zoo will soon break ground on a new exhibit, The Hardesty Snow Leopard habitat, which will provide the zoo’s snow leopards a state-of-the-art enclosure. It is planned to open in 2015.
Updated 08-27-2013
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