Today, March 29th 2026, marks a very special milestone here at Dartmoor Zoo. It is six months since the birth of our Amur leopard cub, Zeya. This day provides the perfect opportunity to look back on Zeya’s journey so far and share a glimpse into the care, dedication, and conservation efforts behind this rare cub.
Our Amur leopard conservation journey started many years ago, with fundraising efforts, careful planning and a goal to help this amazing species. In November 2023, Freddo, our male, joined us, followed by Lena, our female, in August 2024. After months of patient observation and management, swapping habitats and watching the two show positive signs between each other at fence line, our keepers introduced the pair in April 2025. It was a very tense day but thankfully a very successful one.
Then in the early hours of September 29th Zeya was born.
Dartmoor Zoo CEO – Dr David Gibson
“To Zeya, at six months of age, the world is an exciting place full of new experiences to explore and have fun with. She is completely unaware of just how important she is to her species. One of only 15 Amur Leopard cubs born in 2025, she is helping to ensure that the zoo population of Amur Leopards continues to thrive, solidifying survival of this critically endangered species. She is also helping Dartmoor Zoo continue to deliver vital conservation work by attracting 1,000’s of visitors who flocked to see her over the February half term in particular. These visitors have enjoyed watching Zeya as she continues to grow and explore her surroundings under the watchful eyes of Mum Lena.”
We now are going to hear from keeper Hannah, one of our keepers who has worked closely with our leopard family and will share her insights into Zeya’s first six months:
‘Since their arrival and successful pairing, ultimately leading to Freddo and Lena bringing Zeya into the world, it has been my career highlight getting to be a part of this journey and work with such a critically endangered species. Zeya’s birth has been such a big event for the zoo and I’ve loved seeing people support us and be patient whilst trying to catch a glimpse of Zeya.
It’s was a genuine honour to watch her birth on camera at 12.33am on 29th September 2025 from the comfort of my sofa, watching all the very nervous moments as Lena tackled the first few weeks of motherhood, and being there to witness her first appearance out of the den. Maddy and I did her vet checks, at 9 and 12 weeks old which was a very cool learning curve to experience holding a tiny yet incredibly feisty baby leopard.
I have loved seeing her personality grow. She is a very confident youngster with a lot of energy, and has taken on the sassy nature of her Mum and the goofy nature of her Dad. She is currently going through the stage whereby she’s having to learn that she can’t be take food out of Lena’s mouth anymore and that she has to work for her own food, much to her annoyance. Zeya is a very smart girl – we started target training with her at approximately 14 weeks old when she was weaned onto solid food and she got the hang of it very quickly. She has also conquered the scales so we can measure her growth, she’s already an impressive 14kg! We have progressed further to get her sitting in the adult training shute for injection training, but as she’s still a bit too small, we have made her a smaller version so we can start the next stage of her training in the near future. We will also be looking to start crate training with her in the next few months to prepare her for when she leaves us for a new home when she’s old enough. Zeya is a growing girl that is very food motivated, to the point she screams and will try to push ahead of Lena to get food, so we need to work on her patience. She has also met several new members of staff, volunteers and public and knows how to work a crowd. She’s just starting to feel comfortable with exploring new areas of the enclosure with public around including down by the viewing window, which is lovely to see as previously Lena has been very shy around this area, whereas Zeya is confident to explore.
The whole experience has been new for us keepers, as this is the first leopard cub ever born at the zoo, but also a big learning curve for Lena too as she’s a first time Mum. Lena has adjusted very well to motherhood and is extremely protective of Zeya, but as Lena’s confidence has grown alongside Zeya’s, they are happy to spend time apart so Zeya can go off and explore, but they are always in contact with each other and will often be seen curled up together after they’ve finished exploring.
We are very lucky that everything has gone pretty smoothly and Lena has done an amazing job, but I’d say the most challenging part has been Lena’s personality – Lena is a nervous individual and so she holds back if she’s unsure of anything, and she will often run into the den to hide until she feels safe to come out, and Zeya did do this for a while but she seems to have gathered her own thoughts and is confident to push past what Lena tells her to do (until Lena tells her off that is!).
Sometimes you meet an animal as a zookeeper and you create such a unique bond with them and they become like close family. This whole journey has been a very special one for me and I never take it for granted that I get to spend my life with the girls – they make me very proud!
One line to describe them – two peas in a pod!’
Thank you for joining us in celebrating these incredible animals and supporting their future! If you’d like to help us continue our important work, please consider making a donation.