Profile of the Endangered - a photo on Flickriver

Meet the snow leopard, easily one of the most beautiful and graceful of the big cats. In the wild these beauties range through the Central Asian highlands.

With a tail as long as their body, used for balance and warmth, these mountain dwellers can leap 40-50 feet horizontally and 20+ feet vertically. They also have magnificent large paws for walking through the snow covered mountains at 20,000 ft.

Unfortunately they are still hunted, mainly for their fur and traditional medicine uses. Loss of habitat and prey, almost all the wild ungulates they traditionally prey on have been hunted out, are also leading to their demise.

Population estimates in the wild are 2500 breeding age adults total, with no more that 250 adults in any one regional sub-population. There are 500 or so in captivity between some 150 zoos, 236 of these extremely rare cats are in the US. Captive breeding has had some success and the species is the subject of an intensive Species Protection Plan in zoos worldwide. Aside from IUCN Redlist and CITES listings the snow leopard is protected by law through most of it's range: Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan all have laws against hunting the snow leopard. Unfortunately enforcement is difficult.

Last special bits:
Snow leoprds can't roar. Unlike the rest of the big cats they lack the large thick tissue that enables the rest to roar.
Snow leopards have a very unusual eye color, especially for cats: pale green, grey or very greyish blue.

IUCN Redlist: Endangered
CITES: Appendix I

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Taken on: March 6, 2006

Tags:

Roger Williams Zoo

Providence

RI more »

Snow Leopard

Animalia

Chordata

Vertebrata

Mammalia

Carnivora

Felidae

Pantherinae

Uncia

Uncia uncia

animals

cats

IUCN Redlist: Endangered

CITES: Appendix I

Endangered « less

Sets appears in: • Aquariums, Museums & Zoos • Mammals more » • 2006 « less

Groups appears in: • Rare Wildlife • Mammals more » • New England Zoos • Leopards & Cheetahs • Snow Leopards « less

Camera: Canon EOS 10D, f/13.0, 1/320 sec, 400mm, ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 10D
Lens:	400.0 mm
Aperture:	f/13.0
Exposure Time:	0.003 sec (1/320)
Focal Length:	400mm
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	-0.63 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
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