The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is a felid species in the genus Panthera. It has a thick whitish to grey fur with black spots on the head and neck, with larger rosettes on the back, flanks and bushy tail. Males are larger than the females, and both sexes have long canine teeth. Its small rounded ears, broad paws, and thick tails are adaptations for living in cold, mountainous environments. The snow leopard is native to the mountain ranges of Asia, ranging from eastern Hindu Kush, 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) featuring cliffs and ridges, but also lives at lower elevations in the northern part of its range. It is a solitary animal and is mostly active at dawn and twilight. It is a carnivore and actively hunts its prey, which include various ungulates and domestic livestock. 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. The snow leopard is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because the global population is estimated to number fewer than 10,000 mature individuals and is expected to decline about 10% by 2040. It is mainly threatened by poaching and habitat destruction. It is listed in CITES Appendix I and legally protected in most countries of its range. It is widely used in heraldry and as an emblem in Central Asia and parts of North India.
Etymology
The word panther derives from the Classical Latin panthēra, itself from the Ancient Greek πάνθηρ pánthēr, which was used for spotted cats. The Latin name uncia and the English word ounce originate from the Old French word once, originally l'once, ultimately from Ancient Greek λύγξ lýnx.
Taxonomy
Felis uncia was the scientific name used by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber in 1777 who described a snow leopard based on an earlier description by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, assuming that the cat occurred along the Barbary Coast, in Persia, East India and China. The genus name Uncia was proposed by John Edward Gray in 1854 for Asian cats with a long and thick tail. Felis irbis was proposed by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg in 1830, based on a skin of a female snow leopard collected in the Altai Mountains. He also clarified that several leopard (P. pardus) skins were previously misidentified as snow leopard skins. Felis uncioides was proposed by Thomas Horsfield in 1855 based on a snow leopard skin from Nepal in the collection of the Museum of the East India Company. Uncia uncia was the scientific name used by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1930 to denote the species when he reviewed skins and skulls of various Panthera species from Asia. He also described the morphological differences between snow leopard and leopard skins. Panthera baikalensis-romanii was proposed by a Russian scientist in 2000 based on a dark brown snow leopard skin from the Petrovsk-Zabaykalsky District in southern Transbaikal. The snow leopard was long classified in the monotypic genus Uncia. Based on results of phylogenetic studies, it was later subordinated to the genus Panthera. There was no evidence of recognized subspecies of snow leopard until early 2017. Results of a phylogeographic analysis indicated that there could be three distinct subspecies:
P. u. uncia in the range countries of the Pamir Mountains P. u. irbis in Mongolia, and P. u. uncioides in the Himalayas and Qinghai. This classification has been both contested and supported by different researchers. In the 2020s, two possible European extinct paleosubspecies–Panthera uncia pyrenaica from France and Panthera uncia lusitana from Portugal, were named but the sub-specific validity of the former is uncertain.
Evolution
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