The snow leopard.......... so beautyfull cat save it.......

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The snow leopard is usually found above the tree line and permanent snow in central Asia's dry mountainous country. While it is not known exactly how many snow leopards live in their natural habitat, the population of the species is considered in decline, and in many places they are rare. Humans are the principal threat to their survival, mainly because of loss of habitat from the expansion of human populations. Humans have also hunted the snow leopard for sport, destroyed the animal as a predator of domestic flocks, and sought the large cat for its fur.

In 2000, more than 550 snow leopards were living in zoos, where they have been bred successfully. The snow leopard is listed as an endangered species and is legally protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. In some places, however, enforcement of regulations is difficult. Reserves have been set aside for both the cat and its prey species.

These beautiful gray leopards live in the mountains of Central Asia. They are insulated by thick hair, and their wide, fur-covered feet act as natural snowshoes. These cats have powerful legs and are tremendous leapers, able to jump as far as 50 feet (15 meters). Snow leopards use their long tails for balance and as blankets to cover sensitive body parts against the severe mountain chill.

Snow leopards prey upon the blue sheep (bharal) of Tibet and the Himalayas, and mountain ibex found over most of the rest of their range. Though these powerful predators can kill animals three times their weight, they also eat smaller fare, such as marmots, hares, and game birds.

One Indian snow leopard, protected and observed in a national park, is reported to have consumed five blue sheep, nine Tibetan woolly hares, twenty-five marmots, five domestic goats, one domestic sheep, and fifteen birds in a single year.

As these numbers indicate, snow leopards sometimes have a taste for domestic animals, which has led to many deaths of the big cats at the hands of herders.

These endangered cats appear to be in dramatic decline because of such killings, and due to poaching driven by illegal trades in pelts and in body parts used for traditional Chinese medicine. Vanishing habitat and the decline of the cats' large mammal prey are also contributing factors.
Native to the Central Asian mountains, the snow leopard is a rare sight, with only about 6,000 left in the wild. They are hunted for their beautiful, warm fur and for their organs, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.