Photo of the Day #99: Leo the Snow Leopard

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This is Leo, a snow leopard (Panthera uncia) at the Bronx zoo that was taken in by the zoo recently. Leo was orphaned at a very young age, too young to fend for himself in the wild, and with cooperation from officials in Pakistan was transferred to the Bronx zoo for care. The zoo has so much success with snow leopards that a new snow leopard habitat is being constructed at the Central Park zoo, set to open in the spring of 2009.

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Up until a few years ago I had never seen a Snow Leopard (Panthera uncia) in captivity, but the Bronx Zoo has had great success in keeping the big cats as well as breeding them. In addition to taking in "Leo," a male Snow Leopard on loan from Pakistan, on June 7, 2006 the adult female Mei Mei gave…
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