After thousands of votes Marwell Wildlife have revealed the name of their gorgeous new male snow leopard cub as ‘Kadhir’!
Marwell Wildlife received just over 2500 votes and Kadhir won with 32 per cent, closely followed by Khan with 31 per cent of the votes! Kadhir is a Hindu name meaning ‘ray of light’ and this little cub will certainly bring hope to this endangered species. The three cubs live with their mum Irina and will be introduced to their dad Indeever within the next couple of months. The youngsters are delighting guests and staff with their playful behaviour. Researchers estimate that there are between 4,080-6,590 (IUCN Red List) snow leopards left in the wild. No one has an exact count because snow leopards are so elusive and inhabit such harsh and remote habitat that they are rarely seen. Snow leopards, like all big cat species, are threatened in the wild. This means that maintaining a healthy captive population of snow leopards is of vital importance to the global conservation strategy for the species. In the wild, snow leopards are distributed over a vast area including parts of Mongolia, USSR, China, Bhutan, N. India, Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan.
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