Just in time for the holidays, a new feline has landed at the Santa Barbara Zoo. Layan (pronounced LAY-in), a 9-year-old male snow leopard, has arrived from the Idaho Falls Zoo.
The arrival is part of the Species Survival Plan (SSP), a breeding and conservation program designed to help vulnerable and endangered species not go the way of the dodo.
“Despite their name, snow leopards are also adapted to thrive during the extreme heat of the summer months,” the Santa Barbara Zoo noted. Their thick, grey-white coats help with camouflage in both snow and rock — ideal for roaming the rocky altitudes of Central Asia.