IRBIS, the snow leopard is a fabulous and very rare animal

According to the legends of the Mongols, only a happy person can see the snow leopard or IRBIS (Uncia Uncia and Panthera uncia). This Great Cat is considered a mystical animal called the icon of mountains: most likely because of its elusiveness or extraordinarily beautiful.

To date, no one knows the exact numbers of this predator, but the fact of its possible extinction have led to the fact that snow leopard brought in the Red book and world Red book of Russia. A chance meeting with the beast shrouded in legends is decreasing every year, but the snow leopard remains a living legend of the mountains.

Snow leopard, snow leopard - animal of the red book

The appearance of the snow leopard

Probably, the main reason for the disappearance of single species of snow leopards the snow leopard is its elegant thick fur with a special color: light smoky gray-brown tone scattered large spots of irregular shape in black.

For its size the “mountain cat” is inferior to the lion and leopard, but on a par with the Cheetah takes the third place. Weighs about 40 kg, has a body length of 120-130 cm, and length of tail is about 100 cm In the shape of the head and physique is very similar to a domestic cat. The clutches of a predator is very powerful and strong. They help the animal to make huge jumps. According to hunters, the snow leopard can easily overcome gorge in 8-10 meter wide one leap. Paws are equipped with sharp, narrow, retractable claws, curved shape.

Snow leopard, snow leopard - animal of the red book

Habitat of the snow leopard

The snow leopard range covers the territory of 13 countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, China, Kyrgyzstan, India, Burma, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan. The animals prefer life in the slopes of the gorges high in the mountains to 5 thousand above the sea level. So snow leopard is considered critically mountain predators, the form of which distributed in the mountain systems of Eastern Siberia, Tibet, Pamir, Himalayas. But as the number of animals drastically reduced, if earlier, the family of leopards covered an area of 8-12 sq. km, today it increased by almost four times!