Critically endangered leopard cubs put on playful show

Two rare Amur leopard cubs have put on a playful display at San Diego Zoo for the first time.

The twin cubs were born in April to mum Satka and have been staying close ever since with zoo staff not even able to determine their sex yet.

The baby big cats are an endangered subspecies of leopard and are the first cubs to be born at the zoo since the rare species first arrived in 2011.

Four-year-old Satka has been introducing the youngsters to their habitat over the past month, allowing them to climb and play.

“Our strategy for managing these cubs is to remain very hands off and let their mother continue to do the great job she’s been doing,” the zoo’s senior mammal keeper Todd Speis told ABC Action News.

“As the cubs get older, we will begin to build a relationship with them. But the highest priority right now is the relationship they have with each other and with their mother.”