Snow leopards get names

Written by Staff Reports Saturday, September 15, 2012 01:00 am

Two snow leopards born earlier this year at the Cape May County Zoo have been named.

The cubs, a female and male, were born April 10. Over the summer, the Zoo Society held a naming contest to help raise funds for the zoo’s snow leopard habitat project.

Zookeepers Vince Sonetto and Jennifer Berg selected three Hindi names for each cub, and the public was encouraged to vote for their favorite name either at the zoo or online.

Voters chose the name Chameli, which means white flower or dancer, for the female cub and Bali, which means strong, for the male.

This was the third consecutive year that snow leopards have been born to the zoo’s adult snow leopard pair, Himani and Vijay.