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The Snow Leopard Trust (SLT) is a conservation organization supported in part by the Zoo. SLT involves local communities in projects to protect snow leopards in their native range. To find out more about how you can help the snow leopard, click here to visit snowleopard.org. You can purchase handmade SLT items at the Zoo's Gift Shop.
Download a
Snow Leopard
Trust brochure (PDF)
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Arrived in Cleveland from Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo in 2003. Keepers note that Olga experiences very distinct moods. She keeps a keen eye on the keepers as they move through their daily routine. |
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Arrived in Cleveland from The Capron Park Zoo in Attleboro Massachusetts in 2004. Like some cats, Boy is rather aloof. He spends a lot of time in his outdoor exhibit climbing and resting. |
- The snow leopard’s scientific name is Uncia uncia
- Also called an “ounce,” a name that comes from a Greek term for medium sized cat species
- Adults can weigh between 77 – 121 pounds and grow to be 7 feet long
- Can be found at altitudes of up to 18,000 feet in the mountains of Asia
- They have only been successfully studied in the wild since the 1970s when radio telemetry allowed them to be tracked throughout their huge and treacherous range
- Their elusiveness has made it difficult to determine how many animals are left in the wild, and estimates range from 3,500 to 7,000.
- There are about 600 in zoos around the world (200 in the U.S.)
- Their existence is threatened by poaching and by the loss of their main food sources, blue sheep and ibex, to human hunters.
- The Snow leopard was first listed on the U.S. Endangered Species List March 28, 1972.
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