For the second year in a row, visitors to the Audubon Zoo will be able to see a family of endangered Amur leopards.

amur-leopard.org

Lischinka, born March 9, gets her final round of shots on Tuesday and will be put in the Asian Domain exhibit with her parents later this month.

It's unusual for leopard families to be shown together, because males don't usually care for babies in the wild. But Sasha and Sergei are very close, and Sergei has always helped care for the cubs, according to the zoo.

Lischinka is the fifth surviving cub for the pair, and their fourth litter, said Marsha Fernandez, the zoo's curator of mammals, in an e-mail. She said they have had two previous litters of two -- one in 2003, and one in October 2006. A cub born in May 2006 died two days after its birth.

Amur leopards are the rarest big cats in the world. Only 30 are known to exist in the wild, with a bit more than 200 in zoos. They are native to the amur River valley area of Russia, near the area where North Korea, Russia and China meet.

All of the cubs born to Sergei and Sasha have been female. All were kept with their parents for about 10 months, until they were eating solid food and Sasha was ready to mate again, Fernandez wrote.

Zoya and Nastya were born in May 2003. "Zoya is at the Bronx Zoo and Nastya is at the Erie Zoo," Fernandez wrote. She said Polina and Katya, on display for part of last year, are now at the Minnesota Zoo.