Baby Snow Leopards Study Made Possible by Network Camera

The births of three little snow leopards, two boys and a girl, are celebrated by the Nordic Ark community. Nordic Ark, Aby manor, Bohuslän, is a private non-profit organization that works to give endangered species a chance for a better future. Much of the work it does is in the field, both in Sweden and abroad.

Ewa Wikberg, assistant zoologist at the Nordic Ark, stated in a press release that the organization studies their behavior in order to gain knowledge that is important for those doing research on snow leopards in the wild. In order to gain further insight, Nordic Ark has a camera set up in the cubs den and has shared the live video feed online.

The camera they use to record these animals is a Sony SNC-DH160. Broadcasting continuously in black and white, the camera is set up in the corner of the den, capturing most, but not all of the area. IR illuminators allow the camera to see objects in the dark up to 15 m., allowing rapt viewers to monitor every twitch the cubs make in their sleep.

Tom Svensson of the Nordik Ark told SDM that the camera has been up for a week and one of the challenges the organization had was in getting internet to the enclosure to enable real-time streaming. The camera now transmits the video through wireless 4G internet. You can catch live broadcasts of the snow leopards below by clicking Watch it LIVE on the upper right corner.

 For information, visit http://www.nordensark.se/.