Three Sri Lankan leopard cubs born at the Singapore Zoo on January 1 have made their public debut, marking the first successful birth of the species at the facility and the first in Singapore in three decades.
The two males and one female were born to mother Yala and father Asanka. The last successful leopard birth recorded in Singapore was at the Night Safari thirty years ago. The triplets are among roughly 80 Sri Lankan leopards held in zoos worldwide, Mandai Wildlife Group said in a statement on Thursday.
The Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, with fewer than 800 individuals estimated to remain in the wild. The species is endemic to Sri Lanka, where the largest concentration is in Yala National Park.
Visitors can see the cubs with their mother at the Wild Africa exhibit daily until mid-May, after which viewing will be limited to every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.
“To see three healthy cubs thriving and developing their own personalities is incredibly rewarding,” said Mandai Wildlife Group curator Anand Kumar, who noted it took nearly three years of cross-continent collaboration to pair a compatible breeding couple.
Kumar added that the cubs’ personalities have already begun to emerge, with the two males appearing more laid-back while the female has shown a feistier temperament. The animals can be distinguished by their demeanour and by the spot patterns on their foreheads.
The birth is part of an international conservation breeding programme that supports the insurance population of the species outside Sri Lanka, where habitat fragmentation and human-wildlife conflict remain key threats.
