The Miller Park Zoo is again celebrating the successful breeding of their snow leopard pair and their recovery from an unusual complication at birth.

Jay Tetzloff is the Superintendent of the Miller Park Zoo in Normal and tells Regional Radio News, their snow leopard cubs had 'swimmers syndrome', which he says is common in dogs but is becoming an issue with snow leopards in recent years.

The snow leopard cubs were sent to the Omaha Zoo for rehabilitation and Tetzloff indicates before they did that, they gradually separated the cubs from their mother to make sure they could do basic things like eating on their own. Once they got the all-clear, it was off to Omaha for the cubs to recover.

Tetzloff leads the snow leopard breeding program manager and coordinator and says while snow leopards are considered vulnerable but Tetzloff believes they should be considered an endangered species, something that changed recently for the animals.

Last week, the Louisville Zoo announced one of their snow leopards came down with COVID. Tetzloff hopes the three-year-old female will recover as she is one of the females birthed at the Miller Park Zoo as a part of their breeding program.

Additionally, the snow leopard cubs at the Miller Park Zoo were two of only seven cubs to survive this year, emphasizing the importance of the measures they took to help their young ones recover from swimmers syndrome.