Snow Leopard

Snow leopard animals are also termed ounce. The snow leopards are the large long-haired Asian cat. They are classified as Uncia uncia or Panthera uncia and kept under the family Felidae. Most of the snow leopards are inhabited in the Central Asian mountains and the Indian subcontinent mountain, they stay 1800 meters in winter and about 5500 meters during the summer. 

The snow leopards will have a soft outer coat consisting of a dense insulating undercoat and a thick outer coat made up of hairs about 5cm long. The snow leopards look pale greyish with dark rosettes and a dark streak along their spines. The fur of snow leopards are uniformly whitish and they can grow up to 10cm long. The snow leopard can attain a length of about 2.1 metres and its tail ranges at 0.9 metres. The matured snow leopard can grow up to the weight of  23–41 kg. The snow leopards usually hunt marmot, wild sheep, goat, ibex, and other domestic livestock during nighttime. The snow leopard endangered species will give birth to two to four young ones after their gestation period of about 93 days. 

Initially, the snow leopard was classified under the Leo uncia family with the tiger, lion and other big cats under the genus Panthera.  As, the snow leopard has certain similar skeletal features like a shorter skull, more-rounded eyes. Later many authorities researched it and placed them as the sole members in the genus Uncia. The Genetic study of snow leopards shows that the common ancestors of snow leopards and tigers diverged from the lineage of big cats about 3.9 million years ago. Also, about 3.2 million years ago snow leopards branched from tigers 

The snow leopard was named endangered and kept under the Red List of Threatened Species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) from  1986 to 2017. Now, the status of the species is moved from endangered to vulnerable after calculating the population. 

About snow leopards, 2500 to 10000 adults are remains in the wildlife. But the several factors are contributing to declining the numbers. The drop in the count of wildlife prey, human acquisition of mountains and forests, hunting snow leopards for their skin and fur, changes in climatic condition...etc are the major factors affecting the growth of snow leopards. 

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Characteristics of Snow Leopard 

Snow leopard’s outer fur looks whitish to grey in colour with some black spots on their head and neck with the larger rosettes on their back, bushy tail, and flanks. The belly of a snow leopard looks whitish and the eyes look pale green or grey in colour. The white snow leopard’s muzzle is short and their forehead is domed. Their nasal cavities look large. The thick fur with hairs can grow from 5 to 12 cm. Their body looks stocky and has short legs. They look more similar to other species in the cat family but slightly smaller than other species. The height of snow leopards can grow up to the height of  56 cm and their length from head to body size ranges from 75 to 150 cm. Further, their tail length is about 80 to 105 cm. The average weight of snow leopards is between 22 and 55 kg and the large male animal can weigh up to 75kg and the small female’s weight is under 25kg. The snow leopards have canine teeth of about 28.6 mm long and are more slender than other Panthera species. The length of their skull and width of their palate with large nasal openings are helping them to increase the volume of air inhalation during each breath. They also warm and humidify the cold dry air, which is inhaling. So, they cannot adapt to high-altitude hypoxia

The snow leopard has unique characteristics to adopt for living in a cold, mountainous environment. They have small rounded ears to minimize heat loss. Their broad paws distribute their body weight while walking on snow and the fur will increase the grip on steep and unstable surfaces and also helps to minimize heat loss. The long flexible tails of snow leopards help to maintain balance in rocky terrains. The tail of them is very thick as they are fat storage areas and are covered by a thick layer of fur. Their tails also help them as a blanket to protect their face during sleep.  The snow leopards are different from other Panthera species because of their shorter muzzle, elevated forehead, vertical chin, and less-developed posterior lower jaws. 

Habitat and Distribution of Snow Leopard 

The snow leopards are distributed around Asia. They are majorly spread over from the west of Lake Baikal through southern Siberia. They are located in Sayan and Tannu-Ola Mountains,  Altai Mountains, Kunlun Mountains, in the Tian Shan, through Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan to the Hindu Kush in eastern Afghanistan, the Karakoram in northern Pakistan, the Tibetan Plateau in the Pamir Mountains, and in the high elevations of the Himalayas in India, Bhutan, and Nepal. They are also inhabited in the Mongolian and Gobi Altai Mountains and the Khangai Mountains located in Mongolia. They are found in Altyn-Tagh in the north of the Tibetian region.  In the Indian Himalayas,  Potential snow leopards are inhabited and cover about  90,000 km2. The snow leopards are also found in various areas of about 34,000 km2. And these regions in India are considered as a good habitat with 14.4% of protection, they are Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Arunachal Pradesh. During the 1990s the count of Indian snow leopard population was roughly estimated at about  200 to 600 individuals living across about 25 protected areas.

The snow leopards will change their position according to climatic conditions. During summer, they usually live above the tree line on alpine meadows and in rocky regions at elevations from 2,700 to 6,000 m. During winter they descend the elevation to 1,200 to 2,000m. The snow leopards will prefer rocky, broken terrains. Further, they can move in 85 cm deep snow, but they will use existing trails made by other animals. 

Behaviour of Snow Leopard 

The snow leopard's vocalizations produce prusten, grunting, meowing, and moaning. They will purr when exhaling. While they are alone, they will be more active mostly from dawn to early morning and they get active again from afternoon to early evening. The snow leopards have rested near cliffs and ridges which provide vantage points and shade. Like other cats, snow leopards also use their scent marks to indicate their common and territorial travel routes. They usually produce by cramping the ground with their hind feet before releasing their urine or scat. Meanwhile, they also spray urine near the sheltered patches of rock.  The urine of snow leopards has some unique characteristic low molecular weight compounds with diverse functional groups including hexanol, nonanal, heptanol,  pentanol, 3-octane, and indole. They are playing an important role in chemical communications to create scent marks.

The snow leopards have powerful legs, which are facilitating tremendous jumps. They can leap as far as 50 feet. These snow leopard animals use their long tails to balance and also use them as a blanket to cover the sensitive parts of their body against the severe mountain chill.  The snow leopard animals feel shy and stay isolated, and rarely seen in the wild. The snow leopards know to swim in water too. 

Life Cycle and Reproduction of Snow Leopard

Snow leopards will attain sexual maturity after two or three years from their birth. And normally they live and reproduce for about 15 - 18 years in the wildlife. The average lifespan of snow leopards is 25 years. The snow leopard animal’s Oestrus period lasts for about five to eight days, during this period the male snow leopards won’t seek out another partner after mating. This is mainly because the short mating span of these animals does not provide sufficient time. The paired snow leopards mate each other about 12 to 36 times a day. But, other large cats won’t follow this method, they have a well-defined birth peak. The mating period of white snow leopard falls in late winter and they are marked by a noticeable increase in marking and calling. The gestation period of female snow leopards is about 90 to 100 days. Usually, the young cubs are born between April and June. Snow leopard endangered can give two to three cubs at the end of the single gestation period, in exceptional cases they can give birth to seven cubs. 

The female snow leopard gives birth to their young ones in a  rocky den or crevice lined with fur shed from her underside. The cubs look blind and helpless during their birth. But they are already with a thick coat of fur and their weight ranges from 320 to 567g. They used to open their eyes after seven days. Further, their cubs start walking after five weeks and they get fully developed only after 10 weeks. The parent snow leopard leaves their cubs in the den when they are around two to four months of age.  Three radio-collared snow leopards from Mongolia’s Tost Mountains gave birth to their cubs between late April and late June. Two female cubs are detached from their mothers at the age of 20 to 21 months, but get reunited after a few days over a period of 4–7 months. One male cub, which is separated from their mother at the age of 22 months, stayed with her and moved out of his natal range at 23 months of age. Usually, snow leopards have a generation length of about eight years. 

Interesting Facts About Snow Leopard 

1. Snow leopards are the only big cat that occupies the cold deserts of Asian countries. These cold deserts are also called the third pole, as they contain ice fields with a large source of fresh water outside the northern and southern polar regions.

2. Snow leopard animals are often termed “ghosts of the mountain” as they are seen rarely and spend their major life as isolated. 

3. The fur present near their stomachs will grow nearly five inches thick to help them survive in cold environments and harsh mountains.

4. Snow leopards can catch their prey animals, which are up to three times their own body weight.