These two cute snow leopard cubs seen here showing themselves to the public for the first time under the watchful eye of their mother have been named Mira and Suri after the zoo where they live received over 3,000 suggestions from netizens.

The two were born in August at the Leipzig Zoo in the German state of Saxony and now they have been shown to the public for the very first time after their names were picked by zookeepers from among over 3,000 suggested by netizens.

The zoo said in a statement that the zookeepers chose ‘Mira’, “which means ‘the ocean’ in India and goes very well with the blue eyes of the little snow leopard”.

The statement added that Mira’s sister Suri “also received an Indian name, which translates from Sanskrit as ‘the flower’.”

The zoo said that the snow leopards (Panthera uncia), seen here in footage shot on Friday (12th November), were born on 25th August and that this was the first time that the cubs have been able to discover the “mountainous” Himalaya enclosure that the zoo built in 2017.

They can be seen being watched over by their mother Chandra, 6, and their father Askar, 5, with the the zoo adding that both parents “always keep an eye on them on their excursions and are very vigilant when their offspring take their first steps on the rocks”.

The two young leopard cubs can be seen wide-eyed and taking in their surroundings while their parents give them encouraging licks on their foreheads.

The footage ends showing the cubs climbing over the rocks with much more confidence and agility than at the beginning of the footage.

The touching name reveal comes amid the sad news that three snow leopards, which are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN’s Red List of Endangered Species, have died at a Nebraska zoo due to complications from COVID-19.

The Lincoln Children’s Zoo in Lincoln, the capital city of the US state of Nebraska, said in a first statement on 13th October that some of its Amur tigers and snow leopards had tested positive for COVID-19.

It has since released an update on Facebook on 13th November stating that three of its leopards had died “due to complications of COVID-19”.

It said that snow leopards Ranney, Everest and Makalu were “beloved by our entire community inside and outside of the zoo”, adding that the loss was “truly heartbreaking”.