The snow leopard is well adapted to the high, cold and desolate mountains of Central Asia.
Muscular legs and a tail almost as long as its body allow this elusive cat to negotiate steep, slippery terrain, while its smoky-grey fur offers excellent camouflage against a backdrop of rock and snow.
The snow leopard is crepuscular, meaning it is most active at dawn and dusk, when it hunts a range of large prey, including blue sheep, ibex and markhor – a type of horned goat that can weigh up to 110 kg – as well as small animals, such as marmots, hares and birds.
In this incredible footage, a snow leopard can be seen stalking a markhor in Pakistan's precipitous mountains. When it makes a final lunge for the animal, something unexpected happens.
According to the Snow Leopard Trust, there are between 3,500 and 7,000 snow leopards left in the wild. An estimated 200 to 420 of these live in the Hindu Kush and Karakoram mountains in Pakistan’s northern provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Kashmir.
Top image: Snow leopard chase. Credit: Getty
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