Cat suckles African leopard cub

In the Novosibirsk (West Siberia) zoo a cat that recently gave birth to kittens, suckles an African leopard cub, refused by his mother.

Little leopard named Elda was born one and a half months ago. Despite having only one cub, the leopard female refused him.

The staff of the zoo took a decision to accommodate the cub in a cage with a common cat, which recently gave birth to kittens. In comparison with the female leopard, the cat warmly treated the cast-off cub.

At the present moment the zoo staff is deeply concerned with the size of the cub, which is of equal size with his new mother now and, thus, can traumatise her new-born kittens. Therefore, the cub is being habituated to meat and fish and, probably, in the near future it will be housed in a separate cage.