Prospect Park Zoo starts program to preserve rare cat species
The Prospect Park Zoo has a new exhibit of Pallas’s cats and plans to start a breeding program for this at-risk species of felines.
The Pallas’s cat, which is native to Central Asia, has been classified as “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature since 2002. These cats are often hunted for their fur and organs or accidentally caught in traps, according to Metro.
Pallas’s cats are small, about the size of a domestic cat, but are not closely related to the various familiar household breeds. This makes them a perfect size for the relatively small, 12-acre Prospect Park Zoo, Metro said.