Matsi
Location: Howletts
Gender: Female
Date Of Birth: 24/05/2010
Born and hand raised at Nashville zoo on 24th May 2010. She arrived at Howletts later that year and since 2013 she has reared 5 successful litters out of 5. All her offspring have moved out of home either into other enclosures around the park or onto other collections to start their own families.
She currently can be found down the woodland walk opposite the sunken ice age mammoth and if you keep a real good eye out you’ll find her mate Hue.
Clouded leopards are perfectly designed to live a life in the trees so be sure to look up high. Although Matsi only has 3 legs this doesn’t stop her running around as if she has 4. Her leg unfortunately had to be amputated, when she was about a year of age, after keepers found her severely injured.
Although she has been hand raised and is very sweet, clouded leopards have the largest canines in comparison to skull size of any Felid and therefore keepers aren’t necessarily able to work in with her as she is very confident around people.
Matsi is a sweet natured cat, that enjoys her food (so best time to see her is in the afternoon because that’s dinner time) and interacting with her favourite keepers. Clouded leopards are just one of a few species which can ‘chuff’ which is a greeting cats do to one another or in Matsi's case, people she recognises or likes the look of.