Zoe and Macca are joined live in the studio by Laura Wiener.

Laura has been in the zoo field since 1998 and worked at a variety of different zoological facilities in the US, including San Diego and Oregon Zoos. Laura’s main focus has been mammals with a keen interest in rhinoceros species.

Four rare snow leopard cubs—two boys and two girls named Maya, Kira, Lumi, and Sabu—debuted at Melbourne Zoo in April 2026, born to mother Miska and father Kang Ju. As the only snow leopard cubs in Australia, they are on display in the Lion Gorge habitat, often seen playing, running, and resting.

Melbourne Zoo is part of a global breeding program; Laura discusses if some or all of the cubs will go to another zoo to continue the program. However, this won’t happen until they are 18 months to 2 years old at the earliest.

Laura details How they care for them in a climate that is different from the Himalayas? The training they do for voluntary behaviours What the role of a zookeeper is really like?

Laura detailed that as the cubs grow, they start to practice hunting behaviours, and they’ve started to practice them on mum Miska!

They’re pouncing on her, chewing on her tail, grabbing her,” Laura said. “As you can imagine, four cubs are a lot to handle! So, she does take some time on her own away from them.”

The post ANZAC Day 2026: Laura Weiner, Life Science Manager of Carnivores & Ungulates, Melbourne Zoo; Snow Leopard Cubs born at Melb. Zoo. appeared first on Saturday Magazine.