ST. LOUIS -- Three rare animals have been born at the St. Louis Zoo -- a snow leopard, a tapir and a giraffe -- zoo officials said Saturday.
A rare snow leopard was born May 22, the result of a cooperative breeding program involving the St. Louis, Portland, Ore., and Seattle zoos. It also is part of a national species survival plan strategy. It is the fourth snow leopard born in the St. Louis Zoo's Big Cat Country since 1985.
The new cub and its mother, Chuma, are both on display.
Several thousand snow leopards are distributed throughout the mountains of Central Asia. Snow leopards adapt to their mountain environment with a thick coat to protect them from the harsh winters and hair-cushioned foot pads to help them walk on snow and rocks. Their grayish-white fur with black-gray rosettes allows them to blend in with the rocky slopes where they hunt wild sheep and goats.
Mating occurs in late winter and early spring with one to three cubs born 100 days later, a time when food is plentiful in the mountains.
Snow leopards are classified as an endangered species and are legally protected.
Snow leopards in North America are successfully breeding under the guidance of the Species Survival Plan developed by the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums.
Another endangered species breeding under the plan is the Malayan tapir, one of which was born at the St. Louis Zoo. A male tapir weighed 12 pounds at its birth and may be seen at the zoo's Elephant House. Tapirs have stout bodies and are related closely to the horse and the rhinoceros. Babies are born after 400 days gestation, usually reddish brown dappled with white spots and stripes that act as camouflage in the jungle.
Tapirs are noctural forest dwellers, roaming forest clearings and along river banks to browse on grasses, aquatic vegetation, fruits of low growing shrubs, green shoots, leaves, buds and soft twigs.
The other arrival, on May 13, was a female reticulated giraffe. The calf was the seventh offspring and first daughter to the mother, Gigi, and the father, Jami.
The reticulated giraffe is named for its network patterned coat. It is native to East Africa, having a range restricted to the dry country of northeast Africa.
