Snow Leopard is a living evidence to show that,

“God takes good things away from you, just to give things better for you!”

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Why am I telling like this? What’s the reason behind this?!

Okay, let me spill the beans…! Being under the same family of Leopards itself, there are precious things that has not been inherited by our fellow: Snow Leopard. Nevertheless, Mother Nature did not give up on this creature and has made it privileged with many other special abilities and possessions!! And this is the story of Snow Leopard: the Guardian of the High Mountains!

Keeping all these discriminations and all its paybacks aside for a while, first, let us have a grounding on who this aleatory Snow Leopard is.

Who is Snow Leopard?

In the eyes of scientists, this creature is recognized as Panthera uncial. They are also known as Ounce. He is a mammalian and comes under the order of carnivorous who depends on hunting preys. It weighs 60 to 120 pounds and stands around 0.6 meter (2 feet) height. Further, due to its whitish fur layer with dark spots and rosettes, it can easily be camouflaged in the forests. They survive on top of its food chain and no natural predators have been recognized against them. Moreover, Snow Leopard is a solitary animal who loves being alone. He is much shy and elusive that rarely seen in the wild and fond staying away from human.

Lifestyle and Behavior of Snow Leopard

Snow Leopards are sneaky and efficient hunters and they hunt the animals such as mountain sheep, Ibexes and goats. It can prey an animal that weighs three times bigger than it and that is sufficient for him for one to two weeks as they are slow eater. Except during the mating season, they love hunting alone and most often they use to hunt at dawn and dusk.

Further, their mating season arrives January to March and they are usually mating 12 to 36 times per a day. While their female leopards are called leopardess, the little ones are called cubs. Leopardess carries two to three babies at a time and the gestation leads 90 to 100 days.  Newborns see the world usually from April to June. Snow Leopardess are single mothers and take care of its cubs alone. In the week of birth, the cubs are extremely helpless and blind.  And after opening eyes, weaning period is up to 10 weeks and the cubs usually grow fast and by 18 to 22 months cubs start leaving the mother Leopard but do not forget to reunite timely. However, they usually have a life expectancy of approximately up to 22 years in captivity but in the wild, it descends up to 10 to 12 years

Fun Facts on Snow Leopards

Roaring is a symbol of dominance in the world of animals! They mark their territories specifically by roaring and leaving urine scent. Further, animals such as lions, tigers and leopards roar before a battle as a precursor for the battle. And even by the female lions, tigers and the leopards, roaring is used as a mean of calling the cubs.

But unfortunately, due to its natural anatomy in the throat, Snow Leopard is not capable of roaring like every other leopard. Instead, they make a non-aggressive sound called “Chuff”. This simply makes sense that the voice of the Snow Leopards has been taken away by the god by not letting it spread its dominance like rest of the big beats!

Nevertheless, it has been gifted with many other blessings instead.

Snow Leopard is a tremendous runner that, over a night it can travel a distance of 25 miles and possesses an average speed of 35 to 40 miles per hour. And this sneaky creature also possesses the ability of leaping to a prey 50 feet away! And they are also renowned as a symbol of denoting the health of an eco-system as well. In fact, in Pakistan, Snow Leopard is the national animal!

Moreover, the reason behind calling Snow Leopards, the guardians of the mountain or the ghosts in the mountains is that, they live in the high elevations of mountains where there is a cold environment.  During summer, they live in elevations like 2,700 to 6,000m and in the winter it descends around 1,200 to 2,000m. They are predominated mostly in high mountain ranges of Himalayas and Southern Siberian mountains in Russia where there are extremely shrinking atmospheres.

Therefore, along with that, Mother Nature has gifted with many abilities too for the Snow Leopard in order to survive in the cold. It has small and round ears which helps it reducing the heat loss of the body. Further, its body is covered with a thick layer of fur. And it has been blessed with natural snow shoes by its paws being broad and furry, proving the grip it needs to walk on uneven surfaces and also aiding it to bear the cold. Most specially, Mother Nature has gifted it with a hanging scarf on its body that it uses to cover itself as a blanket in cold. It’s the tail of the Snow Leopard and the most beautiful part of its body! It is very thick due to a huge layer of deposited fat and has a thick layer of fur around it. This exceptionally long tail can be long up to 1 meter in length. It not only works as a blanket as stated prior, but also helps the leopard to be balanced while walking on rocky slopes.

And a weirdly fun fact on Snow Leopard is that, it keeps biting its own tail as a habit. And this is usual for the adult Snow Leopards as well. Some scientists view this action as a countermeasure they use to keep themselves warm in the cold environment, while others see it as a playful behavior.

Well, what if we think this way?

Isn’t it possible that every time a Snow Leopard feels like roaring, it may use to bite its gorgeous tail as a way of reprehending himself that,

“Who wants to make a roar in vain, when I already have been lucky enough to be the proud owner of this long and fluffy tail!!? Duh…”?!

Even though this creature has not been gifted with the ability to Roar, God has made it a hard nut to crack by gifting him many other exceptionally precious skills and making him a living example to show that even things seem to be terrifying and not on the track in the beginning, still,

God has got a better plan for you!!

What do you think?!