Himalayan Leo: Pakistan to seek return of snow leopard from US

The orphaned cub was recovered from a shepherd in G-B in 2005 and moved to Bronx Zoo

ISLAMABAD: The federal government plans to ask for the return of a male snow leopard being kept at the Bronx Zoo in New York City.

Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Mushahidullah Khan has said that as chairman of the Global Snow Leopard Committee, he will play his part to get back the leopard. Snow leopards are indigenous to the Himalayan region and are an endangered species.

The Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) Forest Secretary, Sajjad Haider, recently held a detailed meeting with the minister here and requested him to push the US government for return of the snow leopard, said a statement by the ministry on Sunday.

Khan has told the forest secretary to write a formal letter to the climate change ministry and then he would take up the matter with the US authorities for return of the snow leopard named “Leo”.

Haider informed the minister the orphaned snow leopard cub was recovered from a shepherd at Naltar Valley, G-B, in 2005 and temporarily shifted to Bronx Zoo, New York, under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the World Conservation Society and the G-B administration in 2006 for care and inclusion in their snow leopard breeding programme.

“The snow leopard was a cub then and was handed over to the Bronx Zoo authorities as Pakistan lacked proper facilities,” Haider told the minister.

He added it was agreed between the two organisations that the cub would remain at the zoo until an appropriate facility for captive snow leopards was constructed in Pakistan.

Leo was able to breed at the Bronx Zoo and is now a father.

Under the MoU, the society had also agreed to return Leo to Pakistan possibly with some females after a few years. Pakistan was also required to develop adequate facilities for a rehabilitation centre for the possible return of the leopard.

When contacted, an official of the Wildlife Department of Pakistan said they would be able to accommodate the leopard in a specially built enclosure in its natural habitat in G-B.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2015.