Snow Leopard – New Cubs
On Australia Day 2020, Miska the Snow Leopard gave birth to three cubs. According to Carnivores Keeper Monique Counihan, a first-time mum, “Miska has been the most perfect mum that you could ever imagine”.

Miska and the cubs
The zoo finally reopened on June 1st, after being closed due to Covid-19, and the cubs were displayed to the public about three weeks ago. They are healthy and playful, and on the day I visited, difficult to photograph as they were playing up top on the rocks. My zoom lens has a max focal length of 420mm, and I wished I had one that was longer. I ended up having to crop about half of the image out. Shooting through the wire netting was problematic, while through the glass didn’t give a good line of sight. Watching them was a treat, though, as, on each previous visit, I hadn’t even spotted Miska.

Snow leopards are among the world’s most elusive animals and are classified as Vulnerable in the wild by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List. They live in harsh mountain environments in countries including India, Nepal, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Threats faced by snow leopards in the wild include poaching and mining developments.
Melbourne Zoo
The cubs’ names, chosen and voted by zoo members, are “Asha”, a Hindi name meaning ‘hope’. “Manju”, a Sanskrit word meaning ‘snow’ and “Sikari”, a Nelali word translated means ‘hunter’.

Kang-Ju the Snow Leopard
We eventually gave up on getting a better image of the cubs and continued through the lion gorge, then happened upon the cub’s father in his own enclosure just after his breakfast. He was, thankfully, quite close to the glass and content with his meal. He sat and watched us for a while, allowing us to get our shots.

Indrah the Sumatran Tiger
From Kang-Ju, we continued to the Sumatran tiger. The female tiger is in Lion-gorge, along with the leopards and lions. We got to her just as she was taking her breakfast off to the trees at the back of the enclosure. We waited for the sound of crunching bones while she ate, and then she came back out and paced around a bit before stopping to drink.

Indrah was born at Melbourne Zoo in 2010. As tigers are solitary animals, except when living with their mother as cubs, Melbourne Zoo replicates this environment, and she is alone in her enclosure in Lion Gorge. Indra’s brother Hutan shares his enclosure in ‘Trail of the Elephants’ with his mother – but they swap them out several times a day with only one in the enclosure at a time. We didn’t see Hutan when we were there as both he and his mother were off display. The mother of both tigers, Binjai, is now 18 years old and spends most of her day snoozing.

- Tigers are proficient swimmers and can cross rivers that are 7–8 km wide without difficulty.
- They attack their prey from the rear; only one in 10–20 attempts succeed in a kill.
- Melbourne Zoo Tickets and Bookings 1300 966 784
- Open 9 am to 5 pm seven days a week