They believe that their work identifies three different subspecies of the elusive snow leopard:

1. A Northern subspecies (Panthera uncia irbis), found in the Altai region.
2. A Central subspecies (Panthera uncia uncioides), found in the core Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau.
3. A Western subspecies (Panthera uncia uncia), found in the Tian Shan, Pamir and trans-Himalaya mountain ranges.

They worked DNA analysis from animal scat collected around the places where the cats are living and they sequenced it in order to identify genetic groupings that clearly define subspecies.

This is important because it means that actions to protect the snow leopard have to take this into account in order to preserve the full subspecies range (snow leopards are rare but spread over a huge expanse of territory in a large part of Central Asia).

Source: I initially missed this May’17 information from the Snow Leopard Conservancy.

More importantly, if the common leopard/panther really is an identifiable species (Panthera pardus), many other species holding a leopard name belong to à completely different order:

• The Snow leopard should probably be called Uncia (Panthera uncia).
• The Clouded panther is actually a Neofelis nebulosa and belongs to a distinct genre (Neofelis) which is only remotely linked to lions, tigers and true leopards.

As a matter of fact, the most attentive (or trained) eye could distinguish morphologies between those animals even without looking at their pelt colored patterns (which is still very distinctive for most of them).

Only the China Panther is of the same family as the common leopard and keeps most of its characteristics.

The population of wild snow leopards is very limited in our world where they suffer from an important pressure. But these animals living in high altitude valleys tend to be very difficult to observe and they may not be observed for long times when they live in isolated places.

This more or less the story of a discovery in Afghanistan: The valleys of the Wakhan Corridor, in the Eastern part of the country, not very far from Pakistan and Tajikistan, host a small group of these magnificent big cats.

The Wildlife Conservation Society organized the installation of photography traps in this area and succeeded in confirming the existence of a snow leopard group in this inaccessible mountainous region. But they do not dare give numbers yet.

I don’t know if (and I doubt that) Calvin Klein latest technology-based perfume, Obsession for Men, can live up to the expectations it raises. This musky scent is supposed to attract women, run them wild with its potent aroma. However, wildlife photographers in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala found that it could be used to attract jaguars, cougars and pumas to the camera traps used to get pictures of the endangered cats. Apparently, this does not only attract male jaguars, but females also like the cologne from Calvin Klein.

This was so marked that Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo tried it on snow leopards too. This works! Consequently, the Snow Leopard Trust will try it in South Gobi, Mongolia. Remember that snow leopards are so difficult to find in the wild that apart from GPS collars, it may take months for experts before they can find one in some of the most difficult terrains.

I guess that this will soon lead to a Ig Nobel prize in the future. And some nice new photos, too.

Source: Wildlife Conservation Society – Guatemala Program

• Tiger
• White Tiger
• Lion
• Leopard
• Black panther
• Cheetah
• Puma
• Snow Leopard
• Lynx
• Caracal

Via Snow Leopard Trust.

Cute and timid, isn’t it?