Status
Vulnerable
Habitat
Alpine and subalpine scree, 3,000–4,500 m
Range
India · Asia
Group
Big Cats
The ghost of the mountains, named before it was ever properly seen.
The tail is the tell. Nearly as long as the body, thick with fat, it works as a counterweight on a cliff face and as a blanket at night. Everything about the animal is a solution to thin air and steep stone.
Snow leopards range across twelve countries and are seen in almost none of them. Densities can fall below one animal per hundred square kilometres. Most conservation work here is not about the cat at all — it is about livestock insurance, corrals, and giving herders a reason not to retaliate.
Frames in the archive
Full gallery
Contour Line
Ladakh, 4,100 m — nine days for forty seconds.
