LAHORE: The Lahore Zoo has got a leopard cub through captive breeding for the first time in three decades.

Zoo Deputy Director Mudassar Hasan told this reporter that its management was overjoyed to have a cub through captive breeding for the first time in the past three decades. “It’s a moment of satisfaction and our success,” he added.

Leopards are on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and considered a threatened species. A leopard’s habitat has a wide range in regions of sub-Saharan Africa, West Asia, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia to Siberia; however its population is declining due to habitat loss, fragmentation and hunting.

Mr Hassan said the gender of the cub could be determined after three months or so because the mother of the cub was very possessive and protective of her newborn.

“These animals have a very complex nature; if zoo keeper will try to go near the cub or hover around, the mother might harm her cub out of her possessive nature”. He said once such animals found their cubs in danger, they killed them so that no one could take them away.

Both the mother and the cub were kept in a secluded room and had been removed from the cage.

The two male leopards at the Zoo were caught from the wild and they never faced captive breeding. One was caught from Narowal in 2009 and the other from Shakargarh in 2014. The two female leopards were purchased in 2014 and brought to the Zoo from South Africa. The father of the newly-born cub was the one caught from Narowal in 2009, said the official.

The Lahore Zoo, which now has five leopards, will hold a ceremony after three months for the cub to which students of various schools will be invited and a cake would be cut on the occasion. Besides, the naming ceremony of the cub would also be held and some individual or institution would adopt the cub under the Zoo adoption scheme.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2015

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