International Snow Leopard Day is celebrated around the world every year on October 23. This holiday was founded in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, at the World Forum for the Conservation of Snow Leopards in 2013. The main goal of the holiday is to draw the public's attention to the importance of preserving the unique species of animals of our planet.

Snow leopard, or ounce (Panthera uncia or Uncia uncia) lives in the mountains of Central Asia. This unique animal is listed in the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, as their numbers are drastically decreasing, and the snow leopard is currently among the endangered species. The beautiful color and the value of the fur led to the fact that the animals became the desired prey of poachers. In addition, the expansion of pastures in high mountain areas leads to the fact that the natural habitat of the snow leopard is narrowing.

Our zoo keeps a female snow leopard named Tashi, who was born on April 29, 2013 in Austria, in the city of Salzburg, and came to Mykolaiv Zoo on May 10, 2015. She is very inquisitive and sociable, she even likes to have her ear petted by employees during feeding.

In nature, the main prey of snow leopards is mountain ungulates. At the zoo, Tashi's menu includes chicken and rabbit.

Interesting to know!!! Snow leopards have been kept in Mykolaiv Zoo since the end of the 60s and up to the present time. Fifteen leopards were kept during this entire period. During the entire history of maintenance, there was only one case of reproduction. It happened on 19.10.2016...

Mykolaiv Zoo participates in the International Program for the Conservation of this Species.

We invite everyone to go for a walk to Mykolaiv Zoo to meet our beauty named Tashi.