Meet the Leopards

Here we can see the leopard exhibit, home to Nakia and Shuri. The pair are sisters who were born on April 25th, 2018. Shuri is the black/melanistic leopard who loves her keepers but is more introverted around new people. She is extremely smart and enjoys training, where she’s currently learning a variety of behaviors to help her daily care. She also enjoys trying to sneak up on her keepers from behind to surprise them. Nakia is the more outgoing of the two leopards. Leopards can live 10-12 years in the wild or up to 23 years in captivity. They stalk and ambush their prey, and leopards are known to drag their prey high up into trees to hide it from other predators. They can leap up to 3 meters vertically and 6 meters horizontally, and they can live in both warm and cold climates. In fact, Leopards are the only known big cat species that live in rainforest and desert environments. Leopards can be found in forests, subtropical and tropical regions, grasslands, savannas, deserts, and rocky, mountainous regions