COAL VALLEY, ILL. (June 3, 2013) -- Conservation of snow leopards and other endangered species is one of the lessons the Niabi Zoo provides the Quad Cities community for the last 50 years.
"Conserve, Educate, Preserve," said Sharon Freedman, assistant director education and conservation research Niabi Zoo. "That is our major mission here. We consider ourselves a conservation facility that provides family entertainment."
"Niabi Zoo has military family appreciation days to honor the military families, with service members locally or on duty elsewhere in the world," said Freedman. "We are able to offer them a special day at the zoo and ice cream social, with our last event being a month ago. We try to do something multiple times a year to support the Arsenal and its residents."
"Normally, when people ask about the difficulty in keeping animals in the Midwest, the discussion centers on weather and keeping them warm," said Freedman. "This is one of the rare animals that the situation is reversed. Our snow leopard is quite comfortable with Midwestern winters. He was outside on his platform sleeping contently and enjoying the wind, snow and cold temperatures.
Snow leopards, Panthera uncia or Uncia uncia, are medium sized cats that make their home in 12 countries in the mountainous regions of Central and Southeast Asia.
Snow leopards live at the tree line and mostly in areas with rocky outcroppings, Freedman added. They prowl at altitudes between 4,000 and 22,000 feet, depending on the time of the year.
"Snow leopards have amazing adaptations for their bodies," said Freedman. "It has perfectly adapted for the environment in which it lives. The snow leopard has smoky-gray coloration with darker rosettes over the rest of its body, five inch fur on his belly and the greatest jumping ability of the wild cats."
A snow leopard weighs between 60 and 120 pounds with a length between 39-51 inches. It has a few defining features, one of which is its tail. The animal's tail is used to balance itself through the mountains and can stretch as long as the leopard itself. The snow leopard also uses it to keep its face warm while sleeping. The snow leopard possesses a well-developed chest, short, round ears to prevent heat loss, enlarged nasal cavity, which allows it to breathe more efficiently and heats the air when inhaling. The animals also have shorter limbs and large paws to ease its travel over snow and ice. The leopard cannot roar, but makes a variety of other sounds.
"We look for species that are fascinating and a bit unusual, that promote our conservation message," said Freedman. "The snow leopards' major conservation problems come from poaching and habitat loss. This fragments and interrupts the territory the animals cover. It may not interrupt the lifecycle of one animal, but may prevent it from finding a mate and that is harmful to future generations. These are the same issues that are seen with tigers in Asia and jaguars in the rainforests."
There are reports of 3,500 to 7,000 snow leopards left, in the wild, but because it is so elusive and secretive, with a range in one of the most inhospitable places on the planet, its numbers are hard to verify. There are around 600 animals in zoos around the world and the Niabi Zoo is home to one.
"The snow leopard is on loan from the Toronto Zoo," said Freedman. "Many larger zoos do not have snow leopards and that shows the animal care standards are pretty high at the Niabi Zoo. The Toronto Zoo is comfortable with us housing this endangered animal. There are a number of endangered species at our zoo, Asian elephants, crested gibbons, cotton-topped tamarins, critically endangered red wolves, and bald eagles, which recently left the endangered list."
"We actively engage in conservation support with financial activities, such as the Snow Leopard Trust, as well as active breeding programs and support of highly endangered species programs," said Freedman. "When people come to the Niabi Zoo, I want them to enjoy themselves first and learn something new about the environment. I am always trying to deal with the idea that it is on the other side of the world and there is nothing I can do, but that is not true. We can do things right here that can have an effect everywhere, people too."
The Snow Leopard trust is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that operates in five of the 12 countries in which snow leopards are found. These five countries contain 75 percent of the global population of the animal. Its mission is to build community partnerships by using sound science to determine priorities for protecting the endangered snow leopard.
The Snow Leopard Trust is one of the charities that participate in the Combined Federal Campaign.
The CFC is the world's largest and most successful annual workplace charity campaign. It raises millions every year to promote and support philanthropy through a program that provides an opportunity for federal military, postal and civilian employees to improve the quality of life for all.
More information on the CFC, Niabi Zoo and the Snow Leopard Trust is located on their respective websites: www.opm.gov/combined-federal-campaign, www.niabizoo.com and www.snowleopard.org.
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