We're afraid we have some very sad news. The time has finally come to say goodbye to an absolute Queen of the Sanctuary, our lovely Xixi, the Amur leopard.
Xizi was the first female Amur leopard ever to arrive on site. She came to join our male Artur, and form a breeding pair as part of the European breeding programme. She was less than 2 years old, and one of the most beautiful things we had ever laid our eyes on. Her personality was equally beautiful. Spritely but mellow, just the right amount of sassy, and very communicative. In fact, Xizi’s full name was Xylofoni, a word meaning ‘Xylophone’ which she earned through the beautiful vocalisations that she made as a cub in Finland.
Here at the Sanctuary, she quickly captured everyone’s hearts. She was introduced to Artur, and the pair produced two bouncing baby boys. The twins grew up with Xizi as a perfect mother. Very attentive, and an absolute natural. She would lend the end of her tail as a plaything to keep the little monsters entertained and would swish the tip for them to practice their hunting skills on. While they were busy pouncing on and pulling her tail about, she could calmly doze in the sun or keep a watchful eye on her surroundings. Shortly after her first litter had grown up and moved on, she was paired with another male, Hogar and produced an equally gorgeous litter, this time with one girl and one boy. All these cubs grew up and moved to zoos all around the world to carry on their mother’s incredible legacy.
Years later, Xizi and Artur were given another recommendation to breed. Any concerns that Xizi may not be interested in breeding by this point were immediately squashed because when that lady was in season, boy did you know about it. Although leopards do not purr, what a frisky female will do is a loud purr-like rumble which she would do incessantly. Artur, an older male by now, was not so keen this time around. Perhaps Xizi was so excited that she was coming on far too strong and as Artur was such a quiet boy who wanted a drama free life, she was actually putting him off. We hoped that after a little while her over exuberance would die down and Artur would begin to take some interest but bless her heart, Xizi couldn’t contain herself. She would follow him around every time like Pepé Le Pew, or try to draw his attention to her by rolling around on the floor in front of him, but sadly, to no avail and we allowed Artur to continue his quiet life.
Xizi always loved to be up high on her elevated platforms, watching the world go by and life at the Sanctuary tick along. One of her favourite times of the year were the open days. Not only could she sit on the platforms in full view all day and receive the adoration of thousands of people that she fully deserved, but watching the people was fascinating for Xizi too. Even more fun to watch (and get ready to pounce on) were the anti-poaching dogs doing their displays. Xizi would be entertained as much as the crowds during the dog displays, although perhaps her intentions for those dogs were not quite as innocent as everyone else’s.
On photo days and experiences Xizi was the perfect subject and always a willing hand feed participant. One of the ways of identifying her in pictures was a particular marking just by Xizi’s left eye, the perfect heart shaped marking, and a good illustration of all the love she had had in her life, with the families she had created and how much she was adored by not only the staff but the public as well.
Xizi was found to be unwell on Wednesday morning and refusing food which is not like her at all. The vet was called immediately and after bloodwork it was found that her kidneys had failed. At the age of 19, Xizi had lived a long life for a leopard. Sadly, in cats, kidney failure is a common age-related illness. As much as we did not feel ready to lose Xizi, it would not have been fair to try and keep her and so for her own welfare she was not woken up from her anaesthetic.