Fact Sheet
''Snow Leopard (Uncia Uncia), ''courtesy of community.webshots.com
photographer: Paul Bratescu
- Snow leopards are solitary cats.
- Snow leopards are in a different genus than
most large wild cats because they do not roar.
- Snow leopards have a great springing ability,
due to long back legs. They can even spring 20-50 feet!
- If you shaved off a snow leopard's fur, it's
skin would be spotted in the same pattern as it's fur.
- Snow leopards make sounds similar to those
made by other wild cats. They can purr, growl, mew, hiss, and
scream. They do not roar because they do not have the thick pad
of fibro-elastic tissue that enables other wildcats to roar.
- There are approximately 275 snow leopards
in captivity in the United States.
- There are approximately 3,500 to 7,000 snow
leopards in the wild.
- The mating season for snow leopards is from
December to mid-March. The babies are born in May to June.
- Baby snow leopards weigh about one pound
at birth.
- The average litter size for snow leopards
is two to three kittens. If more are born it is harder for the
mother to care for them. It is also quite rare for all of a large
litter to survive, if more than four are born.
- Snow leopards will occasionally cross deserts
in search of prey.
- In areas where prey is abundant, a snow leopard's
range may only be 35 to 50 square miles. In areas where there
is less prey, however, a snow leopard may have a range much larger
than one hundred square miles.
- Snow leopards have been an endangered species
since 1972.
- Snow leopards have a very long, very thick
tail. When resting, snow leopards curl their tails around their
body and face for warmth.
- Snow leopards do not chase their prey. They
hunt by stealth.
- Snow leopards can not only spring great distances
forward, they can jump 30 feet upward!
- Snow leopard cubs reach sexual maturity at
18 to 22 months of age.
- A common myth in villlages in countries where
snow leopards live is that snow leopards suck their prey's blood.
This is not true. They kill their prey by biting it on the neck
or throat.
- Snow leopards are most active at dawn and
dusk.
- Snow leopards sometimes eat plants to make
up for lack of certain nutrients.
- In Kazakh, the name for snow leopard is elvis!
- There are no recordded incidences of a snow
leopard attacking a human.
- Here is the snow leopard's official taxonomy
list: Kingdom: Animalia; Phylum: Chordata; Class: Mammalia; Order:
Carnivora; Family: Felidae; Subfamily: Pantherine; Genus: Uncia;
Species: Uncia Uncia.
- Snow leopards prefer rocky cliffs, broken
terrain and ravines to slopes and dense forests.
- Male snow leopards are approximately 30%
larger than females.
- Snow leopards have lived up to 21 years in
captivity. Their lifetime in the wild is currently unknown, but
scientists did find a snow leopard that appeared to have died
of natural causes, and it was 10 to13 years old.
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