On June 10, the Wildlife Zoo of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau announced that China’s first survived artificial breeding snow leopard, Ao Xue, has become mature and is expected to mate this year. Ao Xue was born on June 10, 2016.She now has a length of 80 cm and a weight of 35 kg, and all of her health indicators are normal.

It is reported that the zoo has successfully artificially bred two snow leopards in 1984, and three more snow leopards in 1985. There was no successful breeding of snow leopards from 1986 through 2011. In 2012, 2014, and 2015, there were also snow leopards bred. But due to the limited breeding conditions, medical resources, and lack of knowledge and experience about raising infant snow leopards, all the animals mentioned above didn’t survive to adulthood.

Snow leopards usually live to be 10-years-old in the wild. Currently, a taskforce for challenges in raising snow leopards is working on topics regarding the immunization, disease-prevention, and health inspections of snow leopards, etc. The fact that Ao Xue is added to the breeding sequence is significant to the building of snow leopards population.

The Wildlife Zoo of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is located in Xining City of Qinghai Province. With an altitude of 2,300 meters, this is the largest wildlife zoo in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. There’re over 3,000 animals of 127 species at this zoo, with the only snow leopard cultivation basecamp in China.