Two injured snow leopard cubs rescued in Tibet

LHASA -- Two injured snow leopard cubs are recovering after being rescued in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

The felines, which are on China's top protection list, will be released when they can survive in the wild, according to their caretaker, Tangzhub Cering, with the forestry bureau of Biru County.

On Oct. 22, a herder in Biru found the injured animals when his sheep and cattle were grazing. He brought the pair to the bureau.

The veteran wild animal rescuer cleaned the wounds of the cubs, which were three months old at the time, and fed them fresh beef and skim milk.

"In the first two days, they neither drank nor ate. I was very worried," he said.

Now the cubs also eat eggs and fodder, and their feeding costs have been covered by the local government.

The pair was named Princess Snow Mountain and Prince Snow Mountain.

China is home to between 2,000 and 2,500 snow leopards, which are scattered in Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan and Inner Mongolia. Both the number of snow leopards and their habitat area in China account for more than half of the global total.