Port Lympne Wild Animal Park / Парк диких животных Порт-Лимпн
Port Lympne Safari Park, Wild Animal Reserve & Hotel
Hythe, United Kingdom / Хайт, Великобритания
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Hooray! New additions to the world of manuls! On April 9, 2025, Namu and Atlan became parents to adorable manul kittens! 
Wishing the little ones strong health and a mighty immune system!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ9qWn9o4X9/
Ураа! Пополнение в мире манулов! 9 апреля 2025 у Наму и Атлана родились манулята!
Желаем котятам крепкого здоровья и сильного иммунитета!
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Big congratulations to the proud parents! 
And best wishes to their precious kittens. Please grow up fluffy and strong, little ones! 
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I went to Port Lympne at the end of June to see the kittens, and I was lucky enough to speak with the Head of Small Carnivores there!
I’ve written about it for @pazispallas’s newsletter – The 24-hour miracle - by Maxamillian John and Pazi. I talk about how close they came to not having kittens, and took photographs of Namuu, Atlan, their kittens and the keepers.
Please take a look if you’re interested! 
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Wow, what an incredible writeup! Thank you so much!! It’s so fascinating to learn the details around manul breeding. It really drove home what a blessing every single minul is! And seeing Namuu with her precious little family… 
Continuing to wish these fluffy little souls good health and strength!
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Looks like they just announced the kittens’ names on Instagram!
Altai (male) - named after the Altai Mountains
Khutga (male) - named after a traditional Mongolian knife
Bat-Erdene (male) - means “golden jewel”
Zaya (female) - means “fate” or “destiny”
Tuya (female) - means “ray of light”
Kharaa (female) - named after the Kharaa River
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Thank you so much for the article — I just finished reading it and absolutely loved it! Really appreciate you taking the time to write it and to visit Port Lympne to share this with us. 
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Yeeees! 
Very cool names! We’ll be adding them to the website soon!
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These are such great names! I love how Kharaa’s name calls back to her grandmother Qara Their names all fit them so well!
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Hooray!
Also I find the coloring of this litter very striking. The pale, icy grey with almost no brown, particularly notable on Tuya and Khutga, is absolutely gorgeous!
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Thank you! I have a couple more articles coming about how the keepers at Port Lympne have been raising and managing the kittens. I’m so glad they’re all thriving!
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The second of my three articles about the kittens at Port Lympne is now live on Pazi’s newsletter – Beating the odds - by Maxamillian John and Pazi 
It covers the medication regime that the keepers used to protect the kittens from toxoplasmosis, and includes a lot of photos!
Please take a look if you’re interested, and I will also start to upload these photos to the respective Manulization pages soon!
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I read it this morning, and it was a fascinating read, thank you so much! It sounds like this was the first time the clindamycin prophylaxis was used; do you know if there’s plans to expand the treatment regimen to other zoos or conduct formal trials as to its efficacy?
I’m so glad it seems to be working here and Namuu’s beautiful brood is thriving! Bat-Erdene is just too freaking cute! 
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They said they’d certainly like the treatment programme to expand to other zoos, but I don’t know if they have any plans. A lot of zoos struggle to find enough resources already, and they might need help with veterinary staff, so I think it must be very difficult to introduce these new processes.
I sincerely hope other zoos can follow Port Lympne’s example though – the success of this litter is such a clear demonstration of how effective the medication is.
Bat-Erdene is already so charismatic! He’ll be a future star, I’m sure!
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I hope they continue to expand and have success! Clindamycin is a pretty inexpensive drug. Hopefully if the regimen proves effective, more minuls might be saved in the future!
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Maxamillian, thank you for the link! 
We really enjoyed reading it!
I have a question though: did I understand correctly from the article that at Port Lympne Zoo they are using clindamycin for the first time this year to prevent toxoplasmosis in Pallas’s cat kittens? (Or maybe something got lost in translation) 
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And we can’t wait to see your photos on the site! Thank you soooo much! 
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Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
They have used clindamycin in the past, often as a response to toxoplasmosis when it appears. But this particular approach is new: using clindamycin while Namuu was pregnant, continuing it for her after the kittens were born, and then giving the kittens their own medication when they started eating solid food by themselves.
I think this strategy is about using medication to prevent toxoplasmosis ever occuring while they’re still young, which allows them to grow and develop a stronger immune system so they’ll hopefully stand a better chance if they get it later. They might have done similar things before, but this was the first time they took such a comprehensive approach. At least that was my understanding!
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Thank you for your clarifications! 
I must say, I’m a bit confused. I’d like to explain why I asked these questions in the first place.
We heard about this approach from zoologists in several zoos: the female starts receiving clindamycin during the breeding season, and the treatment stops when she finishes weaning her kittens. As soon as the kittens begin eating solid food, they also start receiving clindamycin until about 6 months of age. The doses vary from zoo to zoo, but the overall scheme remains the same.
We first learned about this at Novosibirsk Zoo. They’ve been using this treatment for at least 10 years, and it has significantly reduced kitten mortality rates. They even shared their experience at the EARAZA conference in 2017.
Here’s how the method is applied at Novosibirsk Zoo:
Clindamycin for females during the breeding season, with food 50 mg/kg, once a day in the morning, until the cessation of lactation. For kittens from 2.5 months of age, with food 25 mg/kg, twice a day, until reaching 6 months of age. For juveniles up to 8 months of age: 25 mg/kg, once a day.
But from what we understand, this method was originally developed by Jane Hopper at Howletts and Port Lympne in 2009.
She even wrote a short paper about it 
, describing how successful it was. In that paper, she mentioned that the method was already being used actively at Howletts and Port Lympne:
That’s why I didn’t understand when they said they were using this method for the first time
We thought they had been using it for years.
But in any case, I’m really glad they did use it — it really works! 
I hope that the wearing them off clindamycin goes smoothly and that the kittens will be healthy and strong, and we really want to visit them!
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