The snow leopard (Panthera uncia), also called the ounce, is a pantherine felid in the genus Panthera native to mountain regions in central and south Asia. Despite its common name, it is not a subspecies of the normal leopard (Panthera pardus), but a close relative. It probably got the name "snow leopard" due to its resemblance to normal leopards.
Physical characteristics[]
Snow leopards have whitish to grey fur with black spots on the head and neck, larger rosettes on the back, flanks, and a bushy tail. Its stomach area is whitish. Its eyes are light blue, pale green, or grey in color. It has a short muzzle and a domed forehead. It has large nasal cavities. Snow leopards have thick fur with hairs that measure around 5-12 cm (2-4.7 in) long. A snow leopard's body is stocky, short legged, and slightly smaller than the other members of the genus Panthera, measuring 56 cm (22 in) tall at the shoulder, and measuring 75-150 cm (30-59 in) in head to body length. The tail of a snow leopard measures around 80-105 cm (31-41 in) long. They weigh between 22-55 kg (49-121 lbs), with large males weighing up to 75 kg (165 lbs) and small females weighing under 25 kg (55 lbs). It has canine teeth that measure 28.6 mm (1.13 in) long and are narrower than those of the other members of Panthera. In relation to the snow leopard's skull length and palate width, it has large nostrils, which allow for enhancing the volume of air inhaled with each breath, and at the same time warming up and humidifying cold dry air. It isn't especially adapted to altitude sickness.
Snow leopards show several adaptations for living in cold, mountainous environments. The snow leopard's small, rounded ears help it to minimize heat loss. Its broad paws well distribute the body weight for walking on snow covered surfaces and have fur on the undersides to increase the grip on steep, unstable surfaces; they also help to minimize heat loss. Its tail is long and flexible and helps them to maintain balance in the rocky terrain. The tail is very thick due to fat storage, and iis covered in thick fur, allowing the snow leopard to use their tail as a blanket to protect its face when it sleeps.
The snow leopard stands out from other Panthera species due to its short muzzle, elevated forehead, vertical chin, and a less developed posterior process of the lower jaw. It can't roar despite having a partly ossified hyoid bone and 9 mm (0.35 in) vocal folds that provide little resistance to airflow.
Distribution and habitat[]
The snow leopard lives from the west of Lake Baikal through southern Siberia, in the Kunlun Mountains, Altai Mountains, Sayan, and Tannu-Ola Mountains, in the Tian Shan, through Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan to the Hindu Kush in eastern Afghanistan, Karakoram in northern Pakistan, in the Pamir Mountains, the Tibetan Plateau and in high elevations of the Himalayan Mountain Range in India, Nepal and Bhutan. In Mongolia, it inhabits alpine and subalpine areas at elevations from 3,000-4,500 m (9,800-14,800 ft), but they also live at lower elevations in the northern areas of its range. Possible snow leopard habitats in the Indian Himalayas are estimated to be smaller than 90,000 sq km (35,000 sq mi) in Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh, of which about 34,000 sq km (13,000 sq mi) is considered good habitat, and 14.4% is protected. In the beginning of the 1990s, the Indian snow leopard population was estimated to be around 200-600 individuals living across 25 protected areas.
During the summer, snow leopards usually live above the tree line on alpine meadows and in rocky regions at elevations from 2,700-6,000 m (8,900-19,700 ft). In winter, they descend around 1,200-2,000 m (3,900-6,600 ft). They prefer rocky, broken terrain, and can move in snow that is 85 cm (33 in) deep but would rather use existing trails left behind by other animals.
Snow leopards have been recorded by camera traps at 16 locations in the northeast of Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor.
Behavior and ecology[]
Snow leopard vocalizations include meowing, grunting, prusten, and moaning. They can also purr when they exhale.
They are solitary and mostly active at dawn through the early morning, and again in the afternoon and early evening. They usually rest near cliffs and ridges that provide vantage points and shade. In the Shey Phoksundo National Park in Nepal, the home ranges of five adult radio-collared snow leopards overlapped a huge amount, but they rarely met. Their individual home ranges ranged from 12-39 sq km (4.6-15.1 sq mi). Males move between 0.5-5.45 km (0.31-3.39 mi) per day; in habitats with few preys, an area of 1,000 sq km (400 sq mi) supports only five snow leopards.
A study conducted in the Goby Desert lasting from 2008-2014 revealed that adult male snow leopards had a mean home range of 144-270 sq km (56-104 sq mi), while adult females ranged in areas of up to 83-165 sq km (32-64 sq mi). Their home ranges overlapped less than 20%. These results suggest that about 40% of the 170 protected areas in snow leopard range countries are smaller than the home range of a single male snow leopard.
Snow leopards leave scent markings to indicate their territories and travel routes. They scrape the ground with their hind feet before depositing urine or feces, but they also spray urine onto rocks. The snow leopard's urine contains many distinctive low molecular weight compounds with a variety of functional groups including pentanol, hexanol, heptanol, 3-octanone, nonanal, and indole, which possibly play a role in chemical communication.
Hunting and diet[]
The snow leopard is a carnivorous predator that actively hunts for food. Its preferred prey species are Himalayan blue sheep, Himalayan tahr, argali, markhor, and wild goats. Snow leopards also prey on domestic livestock. They also hunt smaller mammals like the Himalayan marmot, pikas, and voles. In the Himalayas, snow leopards prey on Siberian ibexes, white-bellied musk deer, and wild boars. In the Karakoram, Tian Shan, Altai, and Mongolia's Tost Mountains, it eats Siberian ibexes, Thorold's deer, Siberian roe deer, and argali. Snow leopard fecal matter collected in northern Pakistan also contained remains of rhesus macaques, masked palm civets, Cape hares, house mice, Kashmir field mice, grey dwarf hamsters, and Turkestan rats. In 2017, a snow leopard was photographed with a western woolly flying squirrel in its mouth near Gangotri National Park. In Mongolia, less than 20% of a snow leopard's diet is domestic sheep, although wild prey has been reduced and interactions with humans are more common.
Despite its encounters with humans, there has never been a documented report of a snow leopard attacking a human.
Reproduction and life cycle[]
Snow leopards reach sexual maturity at 2 or 3 years of age and live up to 15-18 years in the wild. In captivity, snow leopards can reach up to 25 years of age. The estrous cycle of a snow leopard lasts from 5-8 days, and males tend to not seek out another partner after mating, probably because of the shortness of mating season doesn't allow sufficient time. Paired snow leopards mate in the usual felid posture, from 12-35 times a day. They are unusual among big cats in that they have a well-defined birth peak. They commonly mate in late winter, marked by a huge increase in marking and calling. Female snow leopards are pregnant for 90-100 days, and their cubs are born between April and June. A litter usually consists of 2-3 cubs, in some cases up to 7.
Females give birth in a rocky den or crevice lined with fur shed from her underside. At birth, the cubs are helpless and blind, although they have already developed a thick coat of fur, they weigh up to 320-567 g (11.3-20 oz). They open their eyes at around 7 days of age, and the cubs can walk at 5 weeks and are fully weaned at 10 weeks. The cubs leave their mother's den at 2-4 months of age.
A snow leopard's generation length is 8 years.
Cultural significance[]
The snow leopard is largely used in heraldry and as a symbol of East Asia. It has long been a political symbol, the Aq Bars (White Leopard), by Tatars, Kazakhs, and Bulgars. A snow leopard is seen on the official seal of Almaty and on the former 10,000 Kazakhstani tenge banknote. A mythical winged Aq Bars is seen on the Tatarstani coat of arms, the seal of Samarqand, Uzbekistan and the old coat of arms of Nur-Sultan. In Kyrgyzstan, it has been used in highly stylized form in the modern symbol of the capital city Bishkek, and the same art has been integrated into the badge of the Kyrgyzstan Girl Scouts Association (KGSA). A crowned snow leopard features in the arms of Shushensky District in Russia.
The snow leopard is the state animal of Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh in India.