Chai Li, a female clouded leopard at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, gave birth to a litter of two cubs on Tuesday, June 14. This is her first litter. She and the cubs’ father, Nah Fun, were born at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand and put together as a future breeding pair when they were just five days old. The two cubs bring the total number of clouded leopards to eight at Point Defiance Zoo.
Staff Biologist Andy Goldfarb says the cubs appear healthy and are doing well. They will be hand-raised by zoo staff and, in a couple of weeks, will move into the zoo’s new cub den, where visitors can see them up close and watch staff feed and care for them. The den is a key feature in the zoo’s new $1 million Cats of the Canopy exhibit, which is scheduled to open later this summer.
Point Defiance Zoo is one of only three zoos in the country breeding endangered clouded leopards. The birth of the cubs at Point Defiance Zoo brings the total number of cubs born this year in the United States to eight. Exactly how many clouded leopards exist is unknown because the cats are so difficult to study.
Zoo staff will invite the public to vote on the cubs’ names once they are safely settled and staff are able to determine their genders. The zoo has two other pairs of clouded leopards, Josie and Raja who produced two cubs in 2003, and Jao Ying and Chee Wit, who zoo staff hope will breed next spring in the new exhibit.
Check out this link to learn more about Great Community Great Zoo Festival on Saturday, June 18, and Sunday, June 19, and about the leopard paw scavenger hunt around Tacoma. To learn more about the cubs, visit www.pdza.org.
