My Snow Leopard Exhibit Design

In my last post, I gave an overview of what we had to do for the exhibit design project. In this post I will go into more detail on how it all worked out. When we got into groups it did not take long for our group to decide on snow leopards. My group first had to research the snow leopard to learn things like:

Where they lived?- so we could design a exhibit that looks close to where a snow leopard lived. In my case the snow leopard lives in central Asia in the high mountains so we knew to give the snow leopard some elevation. We also made it very rocky.

If they were solitary animals?- This is important because if your animal likes to be alone, putting the animal with other animals would have caused a problem. The snow leopard is a solitary animal so we only put one in the exhibit.

Danger to Public?: The snow leopard can jump 19 feet vertically in the air which meant we would have to make sure that the walls around the exhibit exceeded that so the public was safe.

How will the public see them?: In my case the public would see the animal through a glass and there would be information about the exhibit all around.

Hot wiring, temperature, shift area, other things of that nature: The snow leopards exhibit did not need hot wiring since the walls were already high. We did not have to tamper with the temperature since it was a outdoor exhibit but while making a exhibit, all of these things should come to mind. We made a shift area for the snow leopard to go to,  a shift area is where the animals are transported to when their keepers need to clean their exhibit, renovate it, need to check their health and things like that.

After thinking all these things through and designing our exhibit on paper, we were given a bunch of materials to start building our exhibit. Our group also added some additional things like a donation box and an interactive display for the public. We also made a clay version of the snow leopard. Then we presented it to our mentors and parents. Throughout this whole process, you learn a lot about the steps needed to be taken for real exhibits. This was also a great way to raise awareness for the animal. I personally learned a lot about snow leopards and why they are endangered, for example the only predator of the snow leopard is human. Loss of habitat is one of the main reasons and so is poaching.

If you want to check out this amazing animal and its exhibit come to the Bronx Zoo or Central Park Zoo!

                                                                                                              -Nebraas Shahzad