The grand opening of an aviary with snow leopards took place at the Moscow Zoo today. The opening ceremony was attended by Ali Uzdenov, Chairman of the General Meeting of the Irbis Association, Svetlana Vladimirovna Akulova, Director of the Moscow Zoo, and children from the Firsts Movement.

The aviary, which simulates a section of a mountain range, was built with the financial support of the Interregional Association "Irbis". In the upper part of the cliff, a stream flows out of the mountain, flowing through a series of ledges. The multi-tiered rocky slope is populated by grasses of mountains and meadows. There are firs and pines, hemlocks and thuja, birches and junipers, perennial grasses and mosses, just like in real mountains. Many plants are edible for the summer diet of snow leopards. In addition, snow leopards are very fond of jumping, if they have the opportunity, so the aviary is largely designed specifically for this task. It consists of five main tiers, and also provides the opportunity to jump onto a mesh lid directly above the heads of zoo visitors, following the example of the enclosures of lynxes and leopards.

The new residents of the capital are snow leopards Daina and Untsik, who arrived from the Moscow Zoo’s Rare Species Reproduction Center. At the same time, several snow leopards can comfortably live in the aviary at the same time, so that a couple can safely have offspring. In the center of the enclosure, above the visitors' area, a mesh platform has been made, and zoo guests will be able to see snow leopards right above their heads.

Before the opening of the new aviary, Ali Uzdenov met with Young people and children from the Movement of the First. The guys asked questions about the life of one of the rarest cats and how to save it. The event featured a story about the creation of Russia’s first documentary film about the life of snow leopards, "The Master of the Altai Mountains." The premiere of the film will take place on June 4 in Moscow, and in wide distribution across Russia from June 13.

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"Today's event is an important step towards the conservation and development of the population of a surprisingly beautiful and rare representative of the felidae family — the snow leopard. We are very grateful to the Moscow Zoo and personally to Svetlana Akulova for her assistance in preserving and developing the Snow Leopard population in Russia. Our work and the work of our partners are yielding results, three years ago there were only 75 snow leopards in Russia, today there are 87. We have much more ambitious goals ahead of us, and we will continue to work actively in this direction."

Ali Uzdenov, Chairman of the General Meeting of the Irbis Association, noted.

Справка

Межрегиональная Ассоциация «Ирбис» была создана в июне 2021 года с целью сохранения двух приоритетных для России видов животных: снежного барса (ирбиса) и алтайского горного барана (аргали). Председатель Общего Собрания - Узденов Али Муссаевич - член Русского географического общества, председатель Ассоциации «Живая природа степи», председатель общего собрания Попечительского совета Национального парка «Сайлюгемский», учредитель и попечитель Центра поддержания популяции редких видов животных «Алтай-Экосфера».