Baby Clouded Leopard Pictures From Ellen Trout Zoo
It's a always a good day when you inbox is filled with pictures of baby animals from Ellen Trout Zoo, instead of actionable emails. These two fluffy kittens will grow up to be big cats, with even bigger appetites.
Two endangered Clouded Leopards were born at the Ellen Trout Zoo. Clouded Leopards are beautiful, medium sized, secretive cats that inhabit dense jungles in Southeast Asia. They are classified as Vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Clouded Leopards have been cared for by the Ellen Trout Zoo since 1984. However, this birth is the first for this species in Lufkin. The cubs, a male and a female, are being hand reared following the Association of Zoos and Aquariums SSP protocols. The parents of the cubs arrived at the Ellen Trout Zoo in August of 2016 when they were 6 months old.
Such great news, and amazing that these young Leopards made babies so quickly. Sometimes, even if there is a male and female together, it doesn't always end in a littler, so this is truly a first for our zoo.