Pallas' Cat 's cats at Ueno Zoo have bred. Two kittens are currently growing well.

Pallas' Cat 's cat mother and kitten (Left: Mother, Center & Right: Children) (Date of photo: May 29, 2021)	Pallas' Cat 's cat mother and kitten (Back: Mother, Front: Child) (Date of photo: May 29, 2021)

The parents are two cubs kept in a non-public area. The male arrived from Novosibirsk Zoo in Russia in 2018, and the female arrived from Saitama Children's Zoo in 2019. Mating took place on January 18, 2021, and the birth was confirmed on March 28, 69 days after mating, based on the cries of the calf.

The female gives birth and raises the offspring while living with the male. Although the male and female may show some signs of keeping each other in check, they do not engage in serious fights and coexist peacefully, with the female alone taking on the responsibility of raising the young.

After giving birth, the sounds of the babies' cries temporarily stopped, but the female seemed to be continuing to care for them, so I didn't check inside the nest box and continued my usual caregiving duties, keeping an eye on them.

Since the chicks raise their young only inside the nest box for a while after giving birth, it wasn't until April 8th that we were actually able to see the babies. We could see the baby's tiny tail and hind legs from the entrance of the nest box, and it looked like the baby was nursing. Then, on April 18th, we saw two small tails, which confirmed that there were multiple babies, and on April 23rd, we saw the two babies outside the nest box for the first time.

For a while, the chicks were picked up by their mother and returned to the nest box whenever they ventured outside, but by early June they had grown enough to climb onto the nest box where their mother was on their own. The sexes of the two chicks are still unknown.

We will keep a watchful eye on the mother cat so that she can raise her kittens with peace of mind. Please note that there are currently no plans to publicly display Pallas' Cat 's cat mother and kittens.

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(Added on August 23)
Pallas' Cat 's cat kittens will soon be five months old. They are not currently on public display, but they are growing up healthy.
On this day, the mother was hiding in the nest box and did not show herself, but compared to the father, who lives with them but does not participate in raising the chicks, the chicks, although still having childlike features, have grown considerably stronger.
We will continue to watch over the child to ensure that the mother can raise her child with peace of mind.

Pallas' Cat 's cat kittens (Left and center: children; Right: father) (Date of photo: August 18, 2021)	Pallas' Cat 's cat kitten (Date of photo: August 18, 2021)

(June 10, 2021)
(Added on August 23, 2021)