WASHINGTON, Aug 9: Pakistan’s snow leopard Leo is on the front page of the State Department’s website, not as a terror suspect, but as a welcome guest.
The write-up, complete with six stately pictures of the regal visitor from the Naltar valley, describes Leo’s visit as demonstrating ‘the breadth of US-Pakistani relations’.
One of only a few thousand of the endangered species left in the wild, the 13-month-old cub was rescued by a goat herder in northern Pakistan in July 2005 after its mother was killed.
Leo now weighs around 60 pounds.
“US diplomacy has many facets and protecting endangered species is one of them,” the State Department said in one of several statements on the cub.
“The US Embassy in Islamabad has worked tirelessly on this since news of the orphaned cub was first received.”
By Tuesday afternoon, the US media had spread Leo’s story across the nation.
People were told how the shepherd found the cub in Naltar valley, sheltered him in his home and later his grain shed before he contacted the World Wildlife Fund. That set off a long string of diplomatic exchanges to find the young cat an appropriate home.
American television viewers were also told that snow leopards, which are hunted for their fur, are some of the most endangered mammals in the world.
