Snow Leopards at Melbourne Zoo

The four cubs, two girls and two boys, are named Maya, Kira, Lumi and Sabu as voted for by Zoos Victoria members. They confidently leaped onto habitat for the first time, running, tackling each other and curiously checking out their new home.

"The names were inspired by the range countries where snow leopards are found, a wide variety of locations around the Himalayas,” says Keeper Laura.

Member exclusive of their first adventure: 

Born in the early hours of the January 15 to 9-year-old mother Miska and father 10-year-old Kang Ju, these are the first Snow leopard cubs born at Melbourne Zoo since 2020.

"Snow leopards usually give birth to two or three cubs at a time, but we were lucky enough to have four which is a little above average.”

“From about 6 to 9am we saw a cub be born every hour, which was so great to watch.” The four cheeky cubs were active straight away, nuzzling under mum’s fur and energetically rolling around their den. Miska took to motherhood beautifully, nursing her cubs attentively and grooming them – even if that occasionally meant getting a swat by a tiny paw.

"Miska is doing great, she’s really relaxed because this is her second litter. She’s the perfect mum.”

“We can already see that all four cubs have slightly different personalities – they have different markings, which is how we’ve been identifying who is who. The other day Miska was trying to clean one of them and they were swatting her away like, ‘stop mum!’.

“As they get older, they’ll get even cheekier.”

Watch member exclusive den footage:

The cubs received their first vet check before prowling onto habitat.

Just like human babies, they need to be vaccinated and checked over for common illnesses. Unlike human babies, there’s a lot of soft growling during the medical check... and you need to watch out for their claws.

“During the vet check, we’re giving them vaccines, a deworming pill to make sure they don’t have any parasites, we’re checking their eyes, their joints, their teeth. We just make sure they’re happy and healthy at this point in their lives,” says Weiner. “We didn’t know what their personalities would be like and it was obvious very quickly – three of them were really quite calm and curious and the other one was very feisty and quite a handful!”

Catch a member exclusive of their first vet check:

When keepers and our vet team looked over the playful cubs, they small ones were mostly relaxed. (“It was kind of tiring for them, so some of them just snoozed after a while, which is quite cute.”) But they weren’t lacking in confidence.

“The feisty one was definitely putting up a bit of a scuffle,” says Weiner. “It had a lot of energy!”

The cubs are so active in fact, that even mum Miska needs the occasional breather.

“As the cubs grow they start to practice some of those hunting behaviours and they’ve started to practice them on Miska – they’re pouncing on her, they’re chewing on her tail, they’re grabbing her,” says Weiner. “As you can imagine, four cubs are a lot to handle! So, she does take some time on her own away from them.”

Miska is somewhat of a single mum - snow leopards are solitary animals and female snow leopards raise their cubs alone. The cubs rely on their mother for food and shelter for about two years. Kang Ju will continue to enjoy living in his peaceful, rocky habitat alone.

Snow leopards are one of the world's most elusive animals. They live in harsh mountain environments in countries in Eastern Europe and parts of Asia including India, China and Nepal, their thick, patterned fur coat helping them to blend into their rocky habitat. Miska and her cubs will need privacy while her small family gets to know the world and will stay off display until April when they have grown enough to navigate it safely.

Never fear – they will still be tiny and adorable when they leap onto habitat. The cubs mark a continued effort by Zoos Victoria to help conserve the vulnerable species. “Given the species are vulnerable, it’s so important to have this birth at Melbourne Zoo. We’re contributing to information and the world population of snow leopards, which we’re so proud of.”

Did you know you can become a Snow Leopard Animal Adopter and help protect animals both in our care and in the wild? With a monthly donation, you’ll support world-class animal care and enrichment across Zoos Victoria, while also funding vital conservation programs working to save endangered and vulnerable species, like the Snow Leopard.