[Photos by NICK HUNT for PMc]

Guests went wild last night in Central Park as the Wildlife Conservation Society celebrated their 2009 Gala. The event, which marked the opening of the park's new Allison Maher Stern Snow Leopard Exhibit, had guests mingling (at a safe distance) with these fearsome beauties, whose population has dwindled to just a few thousand, thus classifying them as critically endangered. Friends and supporters of the wildlife conservation effort included Carl Bernstein, Adrienne Vittadini, Gillian Miniter, and Muffie Potter Aston.