SAN DIEGO : An unvaccinated snow leopard at the San Diego Zoo has contracted COVID-19. Caretakers noticed that Ramil, a 9-year-old male snow leopard, had a cough and runny nose on Thursday.
Later, two separate tests of his stool confirmed the presence of the coronavirus, the zoo said in a statement Friday. Ramil is not showing additional symptoms, the zoo said, but because he shares an enclosure with a female snow leopard and two Amur leopards, the staff assumes they have been exposed.
As a result, the animals were quarantined and their exhibit was closed. It's unclear how Ramil got infected. In January, a troop of eight gorillas at the zoo's sister facility, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, contracted COVID-19 from a keeper who had the