An Amur Leopard Upchucks

On Saturday, January 26th, my father and I drove down to Colorado Springs to see a few of my friends perform in the Colorado All State Jazz Band.  Before the concert, we met up with my grandma and grandpa, and went up to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo for an hour or so.  We saw a few cool things, all of which I will share with you in the next post, but this post I wanted to devote to the "Critically Endangered" sub-species of the leopard, the elusive and mysterious Amur leopard.  Fewer than thirty of these amazing creatures are thought to be alive in the wilds of southeastern Russia and northeastern China, in the Primorye region.  Poachers have taken an immense toll on the numbers of this cat, as its pelt is highly prized.  Like that of the snow leopard, another fairly large cat that also lives in a very cold, harsh environment, the Amur leopard has a very soft and, for lack of a better term, floofy, coat.

The Amur leopard prior to its little....episode.

Since the number of people who see an Amur leopard in the wild per year could almost certainly be counted on one hand, you are very unlikely to see this animal lose its lunch.  For that, you would have to go to a zoo. Now, don't get me wrong, we didn't go to the zoo just to see animals throw up, but it was definitely an interesting addition to our day!  I do hope that the poor animal is feeling better, though.  If you want to see the video of the animal barfing, click on the link below.  It's not actually as gross as it sounds, trust me!  Also, please enjoy some pictures of the beautiful cat PRIOR to its cookie tossing.  

The leopard recovers after it loses its cool