On tonight’s episode of The Zoo we get to see three rare Snow Leopard cubs being born.
The Zoo’s Operations Manager, Gerry Creighton, believes it is probably one of the first times such a birth was recorded on film via a monitor in the observation room. The snow leopards, who are native to the mountains of southwest Asia, have been part of the breeding programme in Dublin Zoo since the 1970s.
Sadly two of the three cubs died from a mystery virus but tonight we see the one remaining taken by Gerry to a vet who puts her on antibiotics. Gerry said of the remaining cub "It’s a real battle but she shows fighting qualities." And she even ends up in Gerry’s house in Cabra for some close attention.
Gerry added "It was a tremendous amount of effort, feeding her every two hours. It was a very tough time. I got barely any sleep, my whole life was consumed."
"Every effort was made to help the animal survive," said Gerry. "This is one of the hardest part of working with animals. You think you’re seen everything and then you’re knocked for six with something like this. You’ve got to try and be professional and detach yourself from the situation but that can be difficult."
Tune in tonight at 7.30pm on RTÉ One to find out more.
