{"id":141435,"date":"2025-05-29T12:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T12:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/141435\/"},"modified":"2025-05-29T12:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T12:54:10","slug":"endangered-snow-leopard-cub-born-at-kent-big-cat-sanctuary-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/141435\/","title":{"rendered":"Endangered snow leopard cub born at Kent big cat sanctuary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jacob Panons<\/p>\n<p>BBC News, South East<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1747930394_975_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/822052d0-3bf8-11f0-ba78-5de14407f6bb.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"PA Media A new-born snow leopard cub with its mouth open.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>PA Media<\/p>\n<p>Little Lady was born on 10 May<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">An animal sanctuary has announced one of its rare snow leopards has given birth to a cub after months of dedicated work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The cub, nicknamed Little Lady, was born at The Big Cat Sanctuary in Smarden, Kent, on 10 May.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Her successful birth follows months of work by primary trainer Simon Jackaman, who built the trust necessary for mother Laila to voluntarily participate in ground-breaking ultrasound sessions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Celebrity chef and charity ambassador Paul Hollywood said: &#8220;Laila has had a special place in my heart for many years and to see her become a mum for the fourth time is truly heartwarming.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1747930394_975_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/4870e8a0-3bf9-11f0-aa74-bdeae947b4bc.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"PA Media A snow leopard on the other side of a green metal fence inside a cage. There is a group of people people outside the cage with a computer showing an ultrasound on its screen.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>PA Media<\/p>\n<p>Trust had to be built with mother Laila to do the ground-breaking ultrasound sessions<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Little Lady weighed 630g (1.4lb) at her first health check when she was five days old.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">She is the second female snow leopard to be born at the centre, after her sister Zaya in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Mother Laila has had three previous litters with breeding partner Yarko as part of the sanctuary&#8217;s breeding programme.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Snow leopards are listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list, with an estimated 2,700 to 3,300 mature adults remaining in the wild.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">They are predicted to lose 30% of their habitat because of climate change in the next 50 to 100 years and they also face threats from poaching and the illegal wildlife trade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;This birth is a testament to our commitment to the participation in the endangered species breeding programme and the conservation of this vulnerable species,&#8221; said Cam Whitnall, managing director of The Big Cat Sanctuary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Additional reporting from PA Media.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1747930394_975_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/290b6b20-3c80-11f0-af00-f94ff1cabcc0.png.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Thin, green banner promoting the Future Earth newsletter with text saying, \u201cThe world\u2019s biggest climate news in your inbox every week\u201d. There is also a graphic of an iceberg overlaid with a green circular pattern.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacob Panons BBC News, South East PA Media Little Lady was born on 10 May An animal sanctuary&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-141435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114591227683175902","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}