Shuimo and Youhua, snow leopard twins at Xining Wildlife Zoo Photo: Shan Jie/GT

Authorities in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have reportedly launched an investigation after a zoo in Ordos is suspected of planning to put on display a first-class national protected snow leopard, which was found in a grassland. 

An official from the Forestry and Grassland Bureau in Inner Mongolia said they would "definitely" forbid the zoo from using the leopard, which was rescued by a local wildlife rescue station on September 6, for commercial purposes even though the investigation is still underway, reported Hongxing News on Tuesday. 

The bureau said that several officials from the bureau as well as China's national Forestry and Grassland Administration went to the zoo on Tuesday to recheck the leopard and planned to release it into the wild if it was in good health. 

The Ordos Zoo was caught in controversy after some netizens found that it had posted an article on its official WeChat account, saying that the wildlife rescue station had decided to move the snow leopard to a primitive animal house suitable for its survival and "welcomes everyone to come to the zoo to see the animal," according to a screenshot of the article, which was deleted later. 

The article said that the zoo had created a simulated environment like that of snow leopards living in the wild, and had moved the leopard into the hall with the new environment. 

Meanwhile, the zoo has not responded to questions from the Global Times as of press time.

Timely release of rehabilitated wild animals is important for wildlife rescue and protection as for most of the rescued wild animals, they are no longer being kept in captivity, the greater the adverse impact on their release into the wild, Sun Quanhui, a scientist with World Animal Protection, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

Some regions in China where there are no wild animal rescue centers often rely on local zoos for temporary shelter and rescue of wild animals. But the two differ in functions as zoos are mainly for display and education, while the centers are set to release rescued animals into the wild at a certain time, therefore, the release rate is an important indicator to measure the effectiveness of wildlife rescue efforts, he said. 

The snow leopard was first spotted in Siziwang Banner  on September 5. Rescuers from the Ordos wildlife rescue station rushed to the scene and caught the animal on September 6 and later sent it to the rescue station after conducting basic inspection and liquid replenishment for it, reported the Xinhua News Agency.

Snow leopards are categorized as national first-class protected animals in China and endangered species in the world. The number of snow leopards in the country has decreased in recent years due to natural and human factors, reports said.