Snow Leopard Cub HEALTH CHECK! | One Zoo Three

We have had some adorable new arrivals here at the cat sanctuary and I'm off to go and find Rikki to see if I can meet them. Just recently we found out Leila, our beautiful female snow leopard, was pregnant. Is that a heart beating? Yeah. Absolutely amazing. Now Leila has had her two healthy cubs. It's more than maybe as few as 4,000 snow leopards left in the wild. So these male and female cubs are very special. Hey Rikki, how we doing? Hey Cam, all good. We're so excited by these babies. They're seven weeks old now. This is a video from when they were just a couple of days. They were so tiny and much bigger than that now. They are the most adorable things I think I have ever seen. Now we've had three snow leopard cubs before. It's really exciting because it's the first time we've ever had a female snow leopard cub. In their natural habitat in the snowy mountains of Central Asia, females usually give birth in dens that are hidden from predators. So we made sure Leila had plenty of space and privacy to have her cubs. Mum Leila is doing so well. She's very protective. She likes to make sure that we're not getting too close. So what we're doing every day is we're letting her have some time outside and then every couple of days we're going in and just spending time with the babies just to check that they're growing nicely and weigh them. And when are you next weighing them? They're due to be weighed today. So if you'd like to help, let's go and weigh them. With Leila safely out the way, I can't wait to meet the cubs. At only seven weeks old, they are still prone to illness. So Ricky and I are wearing masks to protect them from any germs. Hey guys, how are we doing? Wow, this is the first time seeing our two snow leopard cubs in person and they are gorgeous. The lighter coloured one at the back is the little male and the darker one at the front is the little female and she's already much more confident than her brother. They may look like cute bundles of fur now, but these cubs will grow up to be impressive apex predators. So we need to ensure they are developing in all the right ways. First up, that confident little female cub. Now we're hoping she should be about two and a half kilograms. So right now she's coming in at 2.8 kilograms, which is brilliant. Perfect for her age. Let's have a check then, see how your claws are. How are we looking? All clean, growing nicely. Now even though she's only a month and a half old, her claws and her teeth are like mini needles, as you can see on my arm there. So we do need to be very careful. In the wild, snow leopards use their razor sharp teeth and claws to help catch and devour their favourite prey like goats and sheep. Looks like this little one is pretty well equipped already. One snow leopard down and one more to go. OK, 2.84. That's better. Heavier than his sister. Good job. Brilliant news. They're in great condition, great health. When they're fully grown, they're actually going to be around 40 kilograms. That's as heavy as a small fridge. This is a perfect healthy start to the cubs life journey. The next big step is when they'll become fully independent from mum Leila at around one and a half years old. With snow leopards under threat, these two are a vital addition to the global population and the survival of the species. And we are so proud to welcome them to the zoo. Before we go, we're just going to cover them back over the straw and leave the den and mum's scent back on them and then we'll let mum in. It's been an absolute privilege to meet our two new snow leopard cubs and we are so, so lucky.