Queens Tribune

Snow leopards have come to the Central Park Zoo. The new Allison Maher Stern Snow Leopard Exhibit, three years in the making, holds two females and a male. Their keeper, Heather Gordon of Forest Hills, has spent several hours a day for months bonding with the endangered felines and making them feel right at home in their environment of heated rocks, cool caves, and evergreens.

“Now, they are coming to the front of their holding area to solicit interaction from us,” Gordon said, “which they didn’t appear to do upon their immediate arrival at the zoo.”

From names submitted by schoolchildren, two were drawn at random, and so the females are Zoe and Chocolate. The male is Bo, like the White House dog. The beautiful trio, with smoky gray fur adorned with black spots and rosettes, appear to be nose-to-nose with visitors behind two lookouts, one of glass and one of steel wire. They are under a high tent of steel, a woven mesh that looks light although it is very strong.

Their exhibit has high platforms to ascend and cave-like tubes in which to retreat. One rocky area features a cliffside a waterfall and dramatic fog, while another contains a lush temperate forest of birches and bamboo. The zoo’s Wildlife Conservation Society work on snow leopard conservation began in the 1970s, and continues in China, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The new leopard area blends with the nearby red panda exhibit, and its walls display facts about the big cats. There are off-exhibit breeding and nursery-ready areas, since the zoo is hoping to hear the pitter-patter of little furry feet someday, possibly from the male and female who were born almost the same day and year, in June 2006. (The other female is 12.)

Many human celebrity couples are often referred to in the tabloids by a combination of their names, such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who together are known as “Brangelina”. Will certain leopards be tagged with the nickname “Bozo”?

Admission to the Central Park Zoo, at 64th Street and Fifth Avenue, is $10 for adults, $7 for senior citizens and $5 for ages 3 to 12. It is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the week, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekends & holidays.

For more information, call (212) 439-6500 or visit centralparkzoo.com.