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Laila was born at Antwerp Zoo, and was partly hand-reared (and, unusually, spent time with her dad) when her mother passed away unexpectedly
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Laila has had three litters of cubs with her partner Yarko: the first time two boys, Koshi and Khumbu; the second time another boy called Shen; and the third time Zaya and Attan. She is a fabulous mother!
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Snow leopards are found in high altitude mountainous environments across Central Asia. They use their long tails as a counterweight while their short legs lower their centre of gravity to aid balance
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Snow leopards are highly elusive, making them very difficult to study and monitor. Threats include poaching for their fur and the traditional medicine trade
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These cats are more closely related to tigers than they are to the true leopard species
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Snow leopard fur is long and dense to survive the extreme temperatures
Laila was born at Antwerp Zoo in April 2010. Sadly, her mother died when she was just two months old, so she was partly hand reared by the keepers at Antwerp Zoo. As a result she is quite friendly and bravely takes hand-feeds and enjoys company.
Laila arrived at The Big Cat Sanctuary in September 2011. With her breeding partner Yarko, she is a valued part of the European Endangered Species Programme (Studbook registered) and on 26 April 2019, Laila and Yarko became proud parents of two male cubs, Koshi and Khumbu.
A second pregnancy resulted in the birth of Shen in 2021. And yet another recommendation and pregnancy saw Laila and Yarko become parents for a third time in July 2023, producing two more cubs. Zaya and Attan, a brother and sister pair.
Adopt LailaSnow leopards have extra-long dense fur, small ears, a stocky build, and a long tail that doubles up as a scarf when sleeping – all features that make them experts at retaining body heat. They also have large wide paws for walking steadily in snow.
Dappled shades of grey, yellow and creamy white give snow leopards the perfect disguise for their natural habitat’s rocky terrain. As they move across the mountainous peaks and valleys of the Himalayas and surrounding foothills they are almost invisible to the human eye – hence their nickname: ‘the ghost of the mountains’.
With a global population estimated at fewer than 2,500 mature breeding individuals, snow leopards are listed as Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.
Adopt LailaThe snow leopard typically lives at elevations of around 3,000-4,500 metres in arid and semi-arid shrub land and grassland. In Russia and parts of the Tian Shan in China, they live in open coniferous forest. Generally, however, they avoids dense forest, preferring steep terrain broken by cliffs, ridges, gullies and rocky outcrops.
Snow leopards can kill prey up to three times their own weight, and must kill a large animal about once every fortnight to survive. They hunt ibex, deer, boars, marmots and other small rodents, but sometimes turn to domestic livestock when wild prey is scarce. Across its range, the snow leopard is hunted for its highly-prized pelt and bones, despite its protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Snow leopards are persecuted because they sometimes prey on domestic livestock. This is partly due to a declining prey base, which has been over-hunted by herders under the misperception that the prey species compete with domestic livestock for forage. Occasionally this leads to the retaliatory killing of snow leopards by herders protecting their livelihoods. As grazing pressure intensifies from an increasing population of domestic livestock, snow leopard-human conflict is an ever increasing threat to the snow leopard’s survival.
Adopt Laila