Spica the Snow Leopard
The Kumamoto earthquake occurred on April 14, 2016, causing damage to the animal enclosures at the Kumamoto Zoo and Botanical Gardens, so the snow leopard Spica (born May 27, 2005) was moved to the Omuta Zoo in Fukuoka Prefecture. After that, Spica began husbandry training (training in which animals cooperate with her in taking actions necessary for the physical and mental health of animals), and on March 30, 2017, she successfully had a blood draw without anesthesia.
At the same time, the Kumamoto City Zoo and Botanical Gardens was undergoing restoration, and Spica was due to return to Kumamoto in autumn 2018. Since putting Spica under anesthesia and placing him in a crate (transport box) is stressful both physically and mentally, in the spring of 2018 we began training him to walk through the chute (animal passageway) leading to the crate so that he would be able to walk into the crate on his own without the need for anesthesia when we returned to Kumamoto.
Spica's Footprints Donation
The zoo came up with the idea that Spica would leave "footprints" because she walks the same place over and over again when practicing. Using these footprints, they asked for support for wild snow leopard conservation activities, and during the long holidays from April 28 to 30 and May 3 to 5, 2018, and at Spica's birthday party on May 26, they received a total of 148,373 yen in donations.
From the zoo to the wild
With the donation, we purchased an infrared camera. We brought it to Kyrgyzstan, where wild snow leopards live, and set it up on rocks and trees in the Shamshy Wildlife Sanctuary, which was recently designated a no-hunting zone. As a result, we succeeded in photographing a wild snow leopard. From the pattern of its fur, we determined that this individual was a male that had been photographed six months ago, and that it had been residing in the no-hunting zone to some extent from winter to summer.
From the wild to the zoo
The images captured by the infrared camera are not only used in research, but also as an educational tool at the zoo. On October 21st, Omuta City Zoo held a special lecture entitled "What an Active Snow Leopard Researcher Really Wants to Talk About Now," entitled "Spide ne!" ("Thank you for your hard work in Omuta, Spica! Looking back on the two years we spent together, I feel a little lonely, but I hope you're well when you return to Kumamoto!") to commemorate the event. The footage was shown during Kinoshita's lecture (you can watch it by clicking "movie" at the top of this page).
Finally
On October 22nd, the day after "Spide ne!", Spica walked into the crate on her own without anesthesia, just like she normally does, and left the Omuta City Zoo. Spica's ability to walk to the crate on her own through husbandry training was the culmination of her two and a half years at the Omuta City Zoo.
This also marks an example of how efforts at a zoo have directly led to conservation efforts in the wild, and Spica's footprints are still displayed in the research hut at Shamshy Wildlife Sanctuary, where the leopard lives in the wild. They inform overseas visitors who come for ecotourism or conservation research of the collaboration between a Japanese zoo and conservation efforts for wild snow leopards.
「スピでね！」から6年。同エリアで調査を続けた結果、この雄個体の情報が揃ったことから、現地のNGO団体「Snow Leopard Foundation in Kyrgyzstan」が管理する個体識別一覧に登録するため2024年に「OMUTA」と命名しました。これからも「OMUTA」含め、この地域のユキヒョウの調査・研究を進めて参ります。改めまして、「足あとプロジェクト」にご支援いただいた皆さま、大牟田市動物園の皆さま、そして、スピカに心から感謝申し上げます。
