The Sayano-Shushensky Reserve located in the south of the Krasnoyarsk Territory is home to a rare species of Felidae family — the snow leopard, or ounce. It has a light, smoky fur with big dark spots — ideal camouflage for snow-covered mountain slopes and crevices.
An adult male can be as heavy as 75 kilograms, and its body — as long as 2 meters, almost half of which is its long tail. The ounce prefers to build its den in remote areas: in gorges, rocks, in the mountains at an altitude of up to 2000 meters. Its regular neighbors and prey are ungulates: Siberian ibexes, roe deer, red deer, argali. Snow leopards regularly walk round their hunting area along the same routes. It silently creeps up to its prey, attacks and kills it.
The cubs of the snow leopard are born in April or May, two or three in one litter. In the first week they are blind and completely helpless. The cubs feed on their mother’s milk and leave their den at the age of two months. The male does not take part in the upbringing of the offspring, with the mother taking the cubs on their first hunt by mid-summer. Snow leopards are ready for independent life in the second winter of their life.
People’s insatiable desire to obtain the snow leopard’s luxurious fur to a dramatic population of these cats. The snow leopard is included in the Red List as an endangered species, its population is extremely small — about 6,000 specimens. In the black Asian markets, a snow leopard’s hide can cost up to $60,000, so poachers continue to kill these unique animals. Moreover, significant damage to the number of leopards was caused by the Tibetan campaign against rodents, which involved the use of toxic chemicals.
In countries where ounces are still found, they are
under state protection. The Red List of the International Union for
Conservation of Nature and the Red List of Mongolia include the snow leopard as
a very rare species. According to the Red List of Russia, the snow leopard is
on the verge of extinction: their number is less than 100 specimens. However, all
this is not enough to stop the illegal shooting of animals. The international community and the authorities of the countries where this beautiful and revered animal is still found have to work hard on restoring its population.
