National Zoo Celebrates Birth of Rare Clouded Leopards
Notoriously difficult to breed, two new clouded leopards are born at the National Zoo’s research facility
National Zoo Celebrates Birth of Rare Clouded Leopards, Smithsonian.com, March 2009
Rarely has a birth been so anticipated, or the wait so suspenseful. On March 24, for the first time in 16 years, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s Conservation and Research Center celebrated the birth of clouded leopard cubs.
The cubs weigh about half a pound each and are in good health. Because female clouded leopards sometimes harm their cubs, the newborns were promptly removed from their mother, two-year-old Jao Chu, and placed in an incubator. They will be hand-raised by staff at the Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia.
Cristina Santiestevan is an environmental writer and communications consultant. She writes about issues as varied as clouded leopards in Thailand, climate change in American forests and mushroom foraging in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her work appears in magazines, museum exhibits and nonprofit publications.