Leo Meets His Public at the Bronx Zoo

Hoorah! Leo, the snow leopard found abandoned in Pakistan, is now officially in the public eye at the Bronx Zoo. Last month, the State Department touted a very special arrangement with the Pakistani government, which allowed the 14 month old snow leopard to be sent to the Bronx Zoo temporarily, because Pakistan does not have snow leopard facilities. (Leo could not be relased into the wild because he never learned survival skills - he was found as a baby by a goat herder!) In return, the Bronx Zoo will work with Pakistan to develop a snow leopard program, which Leo would return to.

So, yesterday, Pakistan's first lady Sehba Musharraf appeared at Leo's welcome ceremony. The Daily News reported that Leo was a "shy guy" and just "sat high up on the rocks of the habitat." The AP was able to capture the photograph above - he's certainly a handsome fella. Here's the Bronx Zoo's press release about Leo.

And President Pervez Musharraf will be speaking at Weill Cornell Medical Collage tonight (lots of police presence there, we imagine). But if you miss him there, he'll be on the Daily Show tonight at 11PM.

Photograph of Leo the Pakistani snow leopard, now ensconced at the Bronx Zoo, by Shiho Fukada/AP