Snow cubs

You can read all about the new addition to the snow leopard family on LA Zoo website (http://www.lazoo.org/about/press/0909/090909cubs.html). But watching the mom and the two cubs is a whole another story. Visitors have been glued to the exhibit for weeks, watching in fascination how the growing cubs learn to run, climb, growl and now – hunt. You can see them wrestling, chasing each other and playing, just like any other kittens, but the funniest part, I think, is when they stalk and chase their mom. The female snow leopard is quite a ferocious-looking creature, and the “predatorial” features of her face (narrow irises, dark streaks and a heavy jaw) make it look – to us, humans – very stern. That’s what makes it so hilarious when her playful cubs chase her tail, slap her around or “ambush” her from behind a rock.