The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

A zoo’s three ‘beloved’ snow leopards die of covid-19

By
November 14, 2021 at 8:00 p.m. EST
A snow leopard sits in its enclosure at New York’s Central Park Zoo in February. Big cats in zoos across the country have tested positive for the coronavirus. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images)
4 min

The three big cats delighted visitors to the Nebraska zoo for years — pouncing on pumpkins during Halloween, preening for pictures and lounging on rocks in their enclosure.

The Lincoln Children’s Zoo has described the snow leopards as silly, bubbly and handsome. They were one of the zoo’s main attractions, delivering a dose of mountain majesty to the Great Plains.