By Lindsay Peyton

Woodland Park Zoo invited guests at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 19 to meet its youngest resident – a male snow leopard born just over two months ago.

Children and their parents, alongside zoo regulars, waited patiently at the window of the snow leopard exhibit, despite the cold and rain.

When the cub, named Aibek, which is Kyrgyzstani for “long living,” stepped into the space, oohs and aahs escaped from the crowd.

For the next few weeks, Aibek is expected to appear daily at the outdoor exhibit from noon to 3 p.m. Visibility may be limited as he adjusts to his new surroundings.

Aibek is the first offspring between Helen and Dhirin, both 12- year old snow leopards.

Since his birth, Aibek and his mother have been living in an off-view maternity den. Like snow leopard fathers in their natural habitat, the father does not live with his cub.

Collection manager Deanna DeBo explained Aibek’s birth was “kind of a miracle.”

The parents Helen and Dhirin were paired under the Snow Leopard Species Survival Plan, a conservation breeding program across accredited zoos to help ensure a healthy, self-sustaining population of snow leopards.

Helen has resided at Woodland Park Zoo since 2008, and Dhirin arrived from Oklahoma City Zoo in 2014.

“They had been trying to reproduce for years,” DeBo said.

Dhirin, however, had a very low sperm count.

“We didn’t even know if this could be possible, but we decided to keep trying,” DeBo said. “We kept our fingers crossed.”

After the couple was paired in the spring, fluctuating hormone levels made it impossible to tell if Helen was pregnant.

DeBo said they decided to prepare for the best-case scenario. “The tests were inconclusive, but we got the den box ready anyway,” she said.

She watched from her home computer through a monitoring video to ensure that the birth went well at 9:45 p.m. on July 6.

“He has been very healthy from the beginning, and we’re grateful for that,” DeBo said.

DeBo explained that while snow leopards were recently reclassified from endangered to vulnerable, they are still at high risk of extinction.

“They are very rare,” she said. “We’re very proud of any birth that contributes to the population.”

DeBo said Aibek will stay at least 12 months and as long as two years at the zoo, before he’ll be moved to another zoo to be paired with a female. In the meantime, she hopes that visitors will take the opportunity to meet the cub.

“He’s extremely cute,” DeBo said. “He makes us all smile. He’s the highlight of our day.”

The zoo is active with the Seattle-based Snow Leopard Trust – and both organizations are partnering with Kyrgyzstan's State Agency for Environment Protection and Forestry to protect the snow leopards of the Tian Shan mountains.

The snow leopard is a moderately large cat native to the high mountain ranges of Central Asia and Russia, including in Afghanistan, China, India, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal and Pakistan.

According to the Snow Leopard Trust, the population of these cats in the wild is estimated to be between 3,920 and 6,390.

The organization was created in 1981 by the late Woodland Park Zoo staff member Helen Freeman, the namesake of Helen, the mother of the newborn cub.

Woodland Park Zoo has been caring for snow leopards since the zoo’s first snow leopards arrived in 1972, and 35 cubs have been born at the zoo to help diversify the genetic pool of the managed population.

Marissa Niranjan, director of the Snow Leopard Trust Zoo Partnership program, explained that the organization partners with 100 zoos worldwide.

She explained that zoos play an important role inspiring visitors about wildlife. “The goal is to take that excitement and turn it into wanting to protect them in the wild,” she said. “We know this cub will be an ambassador to his wild counterparts.”

Niranjan added that even though the snow leopards are now “vulnerable” and not “endangered,” conservation efforts are still critical.

“A vulnerable species is still vulnerable,” she said. “They still need help. They still need resources and support and programs to protect them in the wild. There’s still a lot of work to be done.”

For more information about the Snow Leopard Trust, visit www.snowleopard.org.

For updates on Aibek, visit the zoo’s blog and Facebook page. For more information, visit www.zoo.org or call 206-548-2500.