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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