Snow leopard, Panthera uncia.
The photographer writes; [This is] one [of] two young female snow leopards (twins) born a few months ago at the [Bronx] zoo. At the moment they're still being kept with their mother.
Image: Brian Switek.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this world whether we like it or not: we have a choice to either preserve these species or to destroy them in search of short-term monetary gains. But if we decide to destroy these other life forms, the least we can do is to know what we are destroying by learning that they exist. If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image (I prefer JPG format) that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.
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Ooooh, that is such a gorgeous critter!
A lovely photo of a truly gorgeous creature. Thank you and Mr. Switek for sharing it with us.
Thanks for your compliments David and Maureen, and to Grrlscientist for putting up my image of course. :) By the way Maureen, I like your "surname"; the Bronx zoo has a relatively new wild dog exhibit and it's always a pleasure to see them.
I have seen the snow leopards at the Bronx zoo. I usually go to the Bronx zoo once a year. I wonder if this picture is one of the leopards I have seen.
This past summer one of the visitors complained and said that the only thing snow leopards do is lie around. I guess he was expecting them to be more entertaining!
Hey JPS, I usually visit the zoo every other month or so (this particular picture is from about 3 weeks ago), the twins being born over the summer (August?). The zoo also recently took in a new snow leopard named Leo for their conservation program, and he lives in an enclosure next to the mother and the two quickly growing cubs.
The snow leopards have usually been pretty active when I've visited (I usually visit their enclosure between 10 and 11 AM), their attention often focused on little birds in and around their enclosure. When I visited a few weeks ago the mother and the two cubs all had some bone to gnaw on, the cubs trading back and forth. Leo was a bit of a slouch, but the cubs have been pretty playful and I got some great action shots when they were a little younger back in December. I'll post some pictures of them playing on my blog tomorrow for anyone who's interested. The only generally non-active, "boring" big cats I've seen at the Bronx zoo are the black leopards in the Jungle World exhibit, the others usually most active when the zoo opens in the morning, and George the lion can usually be heard roaring all day long.
The last time I visited an Amur tiger named Zeff was especially active, and while I was taking pictures of her I took my eye off her for a second to adjust my camera settings and she sprayed the glass right in front of me. I guess that's getting "owned" tiger-style. Also, the cougars and cheetah trio at the Philadelphia zoo are usually active and fun to watch if you can get them at the right time, and if anyone wants to see some of the other photos I've gotten just e-mail me and I'll send you an invite to my kodak gallery. :)
Brian I saw the pictures on your site and they were great. Last time I was at the zoo was early August, so I'm sure that it was too early to see the cubs.
The visitor who said the snow leopards were boring said this in July '05. It was particularly hot for a NYC afternoon. I thought they were inactive because they were not used to the heat. They're not called 'snow' leopards for nothing! It seemed like he was expecting a sea world type of show with the animals