I have a wildlife zoo-Chapter 486: The Leopard and Aoxue

Fang Ye suddenly remembered something and asked, "Director Qi, speaking of which, it seems like your zoo is the only one in the country that has Pallas’s cats, right?"

He remembered that the capital city zoo also kept Pallas’s cats, but they later died.

Director Qi said, "Yeah, do you know how we got our Pallas’s cats?"

Fang Ye shook his head curiously.

Then, with a few words, Director Qi left him utterly astonished.

At the time, someone picked up a cat, he couldn’t quite remember clearly, whether they had kept it for a few days before realizing it was different from ordinary cats, or a kind neighbor had called to report it, and it was sent to Xining Zoo.

That one was Sun Xiaoman, who hadn’t even reached a month old at the time, and was nourished by the animal keepers using goat milk powder mixed with meat strips.

There were also Sun Simiao and Sun Xiaomei, sibling Pallas’s cats, who fainted from hunger by the side of a highway, and were picked up by a kind passerby. They were boxed up and sent to Xining Zoo, where they were raised and survived.

Sun Shangxiang was bought at a market by someone who thought it was a regular cat and kept it for a few days before realizing it wasn’t a cat. They then contacted the police, and Xining Zoo came to take the cat back and provide care to it.

Over the years, all the Pallas’s cats we’ve raised have been rescues from when they were young.

Fang Ye was so envious he could almost taste it, like he had eaten a lemon: "All of them were picks up..."

In the wild, each Pallas’s cat is a master of disguise, knowing where to find caves to settle in, how to catch pikas, how to evade predators. Without mastering these skills, they simply couldn’t survive in the fiercely competitive wild.

Unable to be released back into the wild, they were kept, and we made sure they lived as comfortably and happily as possible, fulfilling their role in public education.

There were a total of 7 Pallas’s cats! (Blue Planet)

In recent years, we’ve been trying to breed them in captivity. At first, we didn’t have much success, but in the last two years, we’ve had some breakthroughs, having three births with one unfortunately not surviving.

Fang Ye was a little covetous, "Director Qi, could we possibly exchange animals between zoos and allocate a couple of Pallas’s cats to us?"

Even though Pallas’s cats thrive in cold highland climates, and Linhai Zoo is in the tropics, making it somewhat inconvenient to raise them there.

But Pallas’s cats are small!

Being small, they need less space. With appropriate temperatures indoors during the summer, they should be able to survive, and during the winter, they can even play outside.

If it were something like a snow leopard, which is a large cat, a good care environment would require a few thousand square meters of exhibition space, making indoor housing impossible without some sort of advanced system technology.

Pallas’s cats, on the other hand, seem more feasible to keep.

Director Qi thought for a moment and said, "Let’s not talk about this during the tour, we can discuss it afterward."

To be frank, he was willing to engage in exchanges with Linhai Zoo; the animals that were exchanged were like daughters getting married, and of course, one would hope they’d have a good life at the new zoo.

Linhai Zoo has made a good name for itself in the national zoo community!

Despite being smaller-sized and having fewer animals, the exhibit design can be said to be top-notch.

"Alright, let’s continue the tour!"

They went on to look at the snow leopards.

Inside the leopard exhibit, two leopards were sprawled lazily on a sturdy tree perch, basking in the sun, and occasionally exchanging affectionate glances.

They looked to have great couple vibes!

"Hey, look at this big cat playing with Aoxue."

Zoo Director Qi picked up his phone and took a video.

He introduced to Fang Ye, "The big cat on the left is a grandfather already, 21 years old. So, he doesn’t like to move around much, preferring to just lie peacefully and soak up the sun, resting."

Fang Ye had seen articles by Director Qi before and knew that Xining Zoo had such an aged snow leopard, but he wasn’t clear about the exact age.

A wild snow leopard’s lifespan is usually 8-15 years, so this 21-year-old is equivalent to a human of 105 years, very long-lived indeed!

"Impressive, impressive!"

Zoo Director Qi then said, "This is our Princess Aoxue, who is five years old this year."

He told Fang Ye some stories about the snow leopard.

The big leopard had been captured for preying on a herdsman’s sheep and brought to the zoo when it was already an adult.

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More than ten years ago, there wasn’t the concept of rescue and release.

When it first arrived at the leopard exhibit, it showed some stress and was very resistant to people, even refusing to eat for half a month.

As it grew older, it gradually became less frightened of people and sometimes would approach the glass to play with the children for a while.

Aoxue, on the other hand, was a snow leopard that was bred in captivity.

In the past, people didn’t find anything particularly special about snow leopards.

Visitors to the zoo only paid attention to lions and tigers; they had little interest in snow leopards, taking a quick look and thinking, "Oh, a leopard," before walking away.

Even the zoo’s own staff thought snow leopards were just ordinary.

Why are giant pandas considered valuable? It’s because of continuous promotion that people understand there’s such a cute animal.

If you want to promote, starting with snow leopards that lived in a 20-square-meter shabby house, sleeping all day with nothing to do, this environment makes it hard to tell visitors that this is the zoo’s treasure without shooting yourself in the foot.

So later on, the snow leopard’s enclosure was expanded to 240 square meters, and with the birth of Aoxue, having these conditions, Qi Yuan began to post cute photos of Aoxue on Weibo, and fans of snow leopards gradually increased.

Recently, with the growing fame of snow leopards and support from above, a new snow leopard exhibit is under construction.

Snow leopards are solitary animals and don’t need to share an enclosure.

However, the enclosures of Aoxue and the big leopard were adjacent, and Qi Yuan noticed that they often looked at each other through the bars and engaged in some friendly interactions.

In recent years, the big leopard was already very old, seldom active, and had serious tooth wear. It struggled to eat, only able to eat small pieces of cut meat—the elderly diet, looking like it was close to the end.

Qi Yuan thought, since the two leopards seemed to get along, why not try housing them together, which could bring some vitality to the inactive big leopard, and the presence of the big leopard could also be beneficial for the young Aoxue.

Since the big leopard had aged teeth and was worn down, and Aoxue was still young and not aggressive,

considering the low risk from both leopards, a careful plan was made to attempt housing them together.

After living together, the two snow leopards quickly became close, lying together and licking each other.

The young and lively Aoxue, during times when the big leopard wanted to sleep peacefully, would use its paws to shake the big leopard, urging it to play with her.

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Even when the big leopard used the toilet, she would persistently harass it, leaving it unable to relieve itself in peace.

With such harassment, the big leopard’s activity level markedly increased, and it gradually regained its vigor.

It was quite tolerant of Aoxue and didn’t get angry.

Originally, it couldn’t even eat its food, but a year after being housed together, it could tear rabbit skins and eat rabbits again, truly a miracle of life.

Even its mentality seemed to become younger, competing with Aoxue for meat.

Upon hearing all this, Fang Ye looked at the big leopard and Aoxue lying on a log, facing each other in a heartwarming gaze, and couldn’t help but exclaim, "That’s wonderful!"

Zoo Director Qi laughed, "Yes, it is wonderful!"

Lan Li said, moved, "It looks like a kind grandfather and a lovely granddaughter!"

Zoo Director Qi laughed "Hehe" with a somewhat subtle expression, "Actually, sometimes the big leopard will climb on top of Aoxue’s back, trying to do some embarrassing things, but Aoxue never cooperates. Of course, the big leopard doesn’t force Aoxue."

Lan Li was suddenly speechless, "Give me back my sentiment!"

Fang Ye was stunned upon hearing this, marveling inwardly, this big leopard is really an lsp, a hundred-year-old elder yet still interested in those matters.