Welcome to San Diego, Beau!
In search of: White male with black spots. Likes long walks at high altitudes and dining on blue sheep. Must want children. No commitment required.
How do the animals at the San Diego Zoo find their mates? Not through personal ads but a system called Species Survival Plans, or SSPs. They are a lot like online dating for zoo animals, except instead of matching likes, dislikes, or interests, they match animals based on genetics. This matching insures that zoo populations of the most endangered species will keep healthy and viable well into the future. On the Zoo’s Big Cat Trail, one of our active SSP members is the snow leopard.
In 2006, we received a pair of snow leopards, Anna and Everett, who were determined by the SSP to be a desirable pair. Fortunately they also found each other desirable and became the “it” couple of Big Cat Trail. Anna and Everett were unusually compatible, considering that snow leopards, like most cats, are highly solitary. Usually cats only come together during breeding season and separate soon thereafter; the male has no part in raising their kittens. Our pair, in contrast, spent all their time together, grooming each other and even playing together. I could even feed both cats right next to each other with no fighting or spitting! When breeding season came around, usually starting around New Year’s Eve, mating would occur but, unfortunately, never resulted in any births. After several years, the vet staff examined both leopards very closely and came to the conclusion that Everett was infertile.
Giving Anna the chance to contribute to the next generation of snow leopards is still important, so the SSP found a new suitor who resided in nearby Santa Barbara, California: Beauregard. After some training using his favorite treat, beef heart, Everett acclimated to being in a crate and would enter voluntarily. My last vivid Anna/Everett memory will be just after a training session as Everett was rolling in fresh hay in the crate as Anna, just outside the crate, was leaping up and playfully batting him in the face. When the time came, my supervisor and I loaded Everett up, drove him to his new home in Santa Barbara, and brought Beau back with us to San Diego.
Now we face the challenge of introducing two cats to each other. Although it will be hard to match Everett and Anna’s compatibility, we are hoping Anna and Beau get along well, as neither has parented any kittens before. Stay tuned or stop by the snow leopard exhibit to see how Beau and Anna are getting along. Breeding season is just about to start, so keep you fingers crossed!
Todd Speis is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo. Read his previous post, Feline Fun.
That is a beautiful, beautiful animal.
Can’t wait to read how the romance progresses!
when will the scent swapping begin? at some point after all the scent swapping and other methods acquaintance you simply have to put them together and hope for the best. how do you prepare? are there hoses at the ready? some kind of sedation? how do you intervene? i introduced my new kitten to my older cat during december and it was quite a challenge. after weeks of room swapping i finally just let them out at the same time and watched them…in several days i felt comforable enough to go to the store and leave them alone and that went well…i still have some hissing and growling (older cat) but i also have playing and wrestling.
Introducing two animals that are built to kill is very intense, but basically we use about the same procedure as you did with your house cats. First they will alternate days between the exhibit and holding areas. Then we give them visual access, where they can have face-to-face interactions without any contact. The final step is putting them together. We never advance steps until we are seeing positive interactions from the previous.
Even though snow leopards are typically less than 100 pounds, once they are together there is no way for us to physically intervene if things get “rough.” We do have lots of staff to observe and several different ways to distract the cats if need be.
I’m going to miss Everett so much. I loved stopping by their exhibit and seeing them play together. I can only hope Anna will give Beau the attention she so lovingly gave Everett. Good luck and I look forward to hearing their progress.
I feel a little sorry for Everett. Will he have a companion in Santa Barbara? I know you said snow leopards are usually solitary, but since he liked Anna, I hope he adjusts to being alone if there won’t be a friend for him there. And, of course, I hope Anna and Beau hit it off and bring beautiful kittens into the world.
Everett is living with another female in Santa Barbara. I occasionally talk with his new keepers, and they say that the two are getting along well.
ok. so how are the introductions going?
Stay tuned for a new snow leopard blog post!
yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
you all are pretty sure that beau is fertile?
When Beau arrived, he received a thorough examination that indicated he was fertile.
cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!