December 2004
The Snow Leopard
Order
Family
Genus and Species
Carnivora
Felidae
Panthera uncia
The Himalayan Snow leopard is a descendant of the
fabled Saber-toothed cat, as are
other large cats, and lives high up in the mountains of
northern India, countries that
border the Himalayas, and into Russia.
The snow leopard is also called "sabu"
by the
local inhabitants of the mountainous regions that is home to this cat
species. Sabu,
roughly means, "Ghost Cat." They acquired this nickname because
snow leopards are
nocturnal hunters and rarely come down below
the 15,000 foot level, so they are almost
never seen by humans. A research team that set out to observe
the habits of the snow
leopard spent over four years searching for this
species and saw a total of only 18 of
the elusive creatures.
The cat family can be traced back over 40 million
years to an early meat eater called
Miacid. There are nine different
types of carnivore: the dog, bear, raccoon,
eared seals,
earless seals, civets and mongooses, hyenas,
weasels, and cats. Thirty-five different kinds
of cats survive today.
There are two separate species of cats: the stabbing
variety which included the saber-
toothed cat as one of it's members. They used their long canine
teeth to pierce the flesh
of their prey. This species of cat died out several thousand
years ago. The other species
is the biting cats (Felidae).
These cats include all the current species of cat varieties and
can be divided into three divisions 1.The
big cats ( lions, tigers, leopards, etc.)
2.
The
small cats ( lynx, bobcat, puma, and house
cats, and 3. The
cheetahs which are in a group
by themselves. They cannot roar like the big cats but purr loudly
instead.
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Snow leopards are solitary hunters and
because of the harsh climate in which they live, they
must range over many miles in order to find sufficient food to live.
Favorite prey includes
wild goats, mountain sheep and rodents.
These small leopards wait patiently on rocky ledges
for small animals to show themselves. They are extremely
agile and can run down most any
small animal that ventures into it's hunting range. Their
foot pads are surrounded with thick fur
to keep their feet from freezing as they wait (sometimes for hours
at a time) for prey to show up.
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The snow leopard shown above seems to have spotted something interesting.
It's light colored
coat keeps it cool in summer and as winter approaches,
the snow leopard grows a thicker, more
airtight fur covering to provide protection from
the harsh himalayan winter climate. It's winter
coat has spots arranged in distinct rows. They are a grayish
color and have a rounder shape.
These spots aid the cat in being able to blend into the winter surroundings.
Snow leopards grow to 4-5 feet in length and
are around 3 feet tall ( at the shoulder)
when full
grown. They weigh anywhere from 80 lbs
for the female, to 165 lbs. for the largest male. Their
breeding season falls toward the end of winter, the female has
a gestation period of 95 to 105
days resulting in a litter of from 2 to 5 cubs
with the normal number being 2 cubs. Their life span
in the wild is usually around 8 to 10 years
but live twice that long in captivity.
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These cubs are born with a much darker coat than
their mother and are much easier to spot by
predators so she must be especially careful of their welfare for the
first few months. They are
born blind and will start to crawl around in
around 2 weeks. When they are 60 days
old, they
are able to eat solid food although they may
continue to suckle for several more weeks. They
stay with their mother until they are around 1
to 1 1/2 years old.
Snow leopards are on the endangered species list
and it is thought that there may be no more
than 6 to 8 thousand of the cats still alive
in the wild. There are several hundred of this species
in captivity and a concerted effort is underway to protect these cats
from poachers who kill them
for their fur. Most snow leopards are not
killed by poachers though, but are killed by falls
from
rocky cliffs and by landslides.
Press play below, to hear Snow Leopard sounds.