Snow Leopard Uncia (Panthera) uncia Photo Essay

Snow leopards - "The Spirit of the Himalayas". I always have been fascinated with those most beautiful and mysterious cats.

On this page, I want to share my photos with all snow leopards lovers. How many of us have a chance to go and visit their harsh, unfriendly country. Even if a few will go, what is a chance to see those mountain ghosts? Almost none. More than twenty years ago, I tried and I failed. Never seeing one in the wild. Now, when I spend long hours watching them in captivity, I still dream to see them in their natural home. In my photos, I try not to show any 'cage environment' - those free spirits don't belong there. Some will argue that this is not 'wildlife photography' and yes, they are right. But again how many real wildlife photos were taken of them? Very few and most of them were taken by a remote set up that was triggered by a motion sensor. Owners of the set up proudly sign their name under the photo. They never saw the ghost.

Some will tell me that my photos are 'illustrations' and, yes they are right. I never manipulate the nature shots taken in wild that I am going to use as documentary material for a research purpose. Here I am trying to catch the beauty of the free spirit and I WILL remove any unwanted, human made element from the photograph and one can call it an illustration as this is the purpose of it anyway. For those who still want a wildlife photo please go and prove it for yourself - I will bow to you if you come back and show me the photo of this ghost. The closest I came to one was its pelt offered for sale in Kabul. $80.00 first asking price back in 1978. One could buy it for a fraction of this price if one had the time and desire for negotiation. It was a hard time for businesses in Afghanistan. Between two revolutions with almost no tourism, except some hippies, nobody was buying anything. Wartime was one of the reasons I failed in the mission to see the snow leopard. When I left Kabul and went to the mountains, the first day an Afghani guerilla fighter put the long rifle with the bayonet (long one too) to my stomach and we started a very long discussion speaking two different languages with the help of the sign language on my end. I was too young to believe he would pull the trigger. Well, now I see it in a different way but at least I was lucky then. Lucky with my life but not with the snow leopard. We were stuck in Afghanistan for a couple of months but couldn't do too much. We never reached our final point in Nepal, as it was not possible to drive across Pakistan at that time. My dream of seeing the ghost was gone. I collected a lot of interesting material (at that time I was working mainly on taxonomy and biology of the ladybugs and reptiles) during this half-year expedition but came back home with the feeling that I had failed to meet in 'person', in his home, the truly most magnificent creature walking on Earth.

Dear Reader if you have gone this far in your reading it means you have a deep interest in snow leopards. Thank you for visiting and please come back in the future. I will try to update this page from time to time with the new photos.

Best regards,

Mark B. Bartosik

Uncia uncia (Schreber, 1775)

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Carnivora

Family: Felidae

Subfamily: Pantherinae

Genus: Uncia

Species: Uncia uncia

Weight: females 77-88 lbs (35-40 kg), males 100-120 lbs (45-55 kg) up to 165 lbs (75 kg)

Maximum age: 21 years (captivity)

Litter size: 1-7 (usually 2-3)

Range: Mountains of Central Asia in the countries of Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan

Habitat: generally found at elevations between 9800-14800' (3000-4500 m), occasionally (summer in the Himalaya) above18000' (5500 m) and at the northern limits of its range 2000-4900' (600-1500 m). Rugged steep slopes (dry, rocky terrain) with arid and semi-arid shrubland, grassland or steppe vegetation.

Population Estimates: wild populations 4500 - 7350 (McCarthy & Chapron 2003) and about 600 in captivity

Other Names: Felis uncia, Felis irbis, Panthera uncia, Barfani Chita, Bars, Bharal He, Chen, Hiu Chituwa, Ikar, Irbis, Irvis, Léopard des Neiges, Leopardo das Neves, Leopardo de las Nieves, Leopardo Nival, Once, Ounce, Palang-I-Barfi (Berfy), Pantera de la Nieves, Panthère des Neiges, Sarken, Schneeleopard, Shan, Snezhnai Bars, Sniezna Pantera, Xue Bao

If you are interested to learn more about Snow leopard behavior and see the examples on photos please click on the “Behavior Tidbits” link in the menu.