snow leopard

Also known as ounce, Uncia uncia, Panthera uncia, P. uncia

large felid native to the mountains of Central and South Asia

OverviewAI-generated

The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is a species within the genus Panthera. It functions as an apex predator and flagship species. Its primary food sources include onager, Gazella subgutturosa, Common Pheasant, and Tibetan fox. The animal inhabits mountain and forest environments.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the snow leopard as Vulnerable, a status recorded in 2017. It is included in Appendix I of CITES. The taxon has been described in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary and the Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition. Its gestation period is 102 days.

Synthesized by Vinony from 20 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, IUCN Red List, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Species

Vulnerable

Maximum longevity: 21.2 years (captivity) Observations: In zoos, these animals can live up to 21.2 years (Richard Weigl 2005).

via IUCN

~28 min read

Encyclopedic overview

The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is a species of large cat in the genus Panthera of the family Felidae. It is native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia, ranging from eastern Afghanistan, the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau to southern Siberia, Mongolia and Western China. It inhabits alpine and subalpine zones at elevations of 3,000–4,500 m (9,800–14,800 ft), but also lives at lower elevations in the northern part of its range.

The snow leopard was long classified in the monotypic genus Uncia. Since phylogenetic studies revealed the relationships among Panthera species, it has been considered a member of that genus. Two subspecies were described based on morphological differences, but genetic differences between the two have not been confirmed. It is therefore regarded as a monotypic species. It forms a sister group with the tiger and the genetic divergence is estimated to have occurred 4.62 to 1.82 million years ago.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “snow leopard” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.