The twin cubs of snow leopard a large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia are now doing well since they were born two months ago at the Xining Wildlife Zoo in northwest China s Qinghai Province. The mother leopard named Nao Nao gave birth to the twin cubs one male and the other female in July making it the second successful reproduction of the species under captive breeding in Qinghai following the first successful birth in 1983. According to an animal raiser he found Nao Nao pregnant 40 days after she mated with a male snow leopard at the zoo. The raisers of the zoo then made a special nutrition recipe for Nao Nao to ensure the health of the mother and her cubs. Nao Nao gave birth to a female cub weighing 0.45 kilograms at 2302 on July 20 and about two hours later she bore a male cub of 0.4 kilograms. With the zoo raisers special care the two-month-old twin cubs are doing well now and have already gone through the critical stage after they were born. Their the twin leopard cubs claws are very sharp which have left many scars on my hands by scratching. You see their teeth now have grown to be this long. They weigh almost four kilograms now. They are growing very well and are very naughty now said Li Guoxing a zoo keeper who has been taking care of the cubs. Snow leopard is an endangered species of feline animal and belongs to the animals that are under the first-grade national protection in China. Since the animals live in high-altitude areas throughout the year they have difficulties adapting to low-altitude areas humidity temperature barometric pressure and sunshine changes. Many zoos around the world have been trying to reproduce the snow leopard under captive breeding but only to find it hard to succeed. To tackle the problem the Xining Wildlife Zoo designed and set up China s largest snow leopard base in 2009. It planned to create favorite environmental and food conditions for the animals captive breeding. In addition to the snow leopard base the zoo has also built bases for other endangered animal species living on the plateau such as Przewalski s gazelle. More downloads available at httpnewscontent.cctv.com Copyright CCTV For any questions please call 86-10-63969499 or email newscontentcctv.com -ltmailtonewscontentcctv.com-gt -lt-ltmailtonewscontentcctv.com-gt-gt. If you want to learn more please go to the CCTV website at -lt-lthttpnewscontent.cctv.com-gt-gt.

• published: 31 Oct 2013
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