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Two incredibly rare snow leopards have arrived at Chester Zoo and are getting used to their huge, new Himalayan habitat. It’s the first time in the conservation charity’s 93-year history that its carnivore experts have ever cared for the highly threatened big cats. The immersive habitat – which is now home to male leopard Yashin and female Nubra - has been designed to authentically recreate the rocky terrain in the species Himalayan mountain home. Having arrived from zoos in Europe after being carefully matched up as part of an important conservation breeding programme, conservationists say the pair have ‘hit it off’ straight away and are hopeful that they’ll go on to have cubs in the future. Snow leopards are elusive animals which have adapted to high-altitude living in the Himalayas and Central Asia where they face a number of threats including climate change which is eroding the landscape they thrive in, habitat loss, poaching and retaliatory killings following cases of human-wildlife conflict. The new snow leopard habitat opens to the public on 25 March 2024..