Snow Leopards (Uncia uncia)

Karma (left) Pasha (right)

Snow leopards are very interesting to me. Despite their beautiful markings, they are very interesting to me because of their behavior. Snow leopards tend to be on the more docile and content side rather than aggressive like their close relative, the amur leopard. Omaha’s zoo has two leopards, Karma (female) and Pasha (male). These two are a mating pair and we hope to see cubs in the near future. They are very close together and nurturing towards each other. It really makes my day seeing these two all of the time.  In addition, I think they look forward to seeing me every day due to how much they take a curiosity of me when I walk in the back holding.

As for a basic background on all snow leopards, they can be found in Central and South Asia and are considered endangered. You can commonly find these snow leopards in the mountains where it is a lot colder environment. An interesting fact about snow leopards is that they are the national animal of Pakistan.  Interestingly enough, their tail is quite long in comparison to their body size ratio.  This is beneficial because their tail is full of fat and thickly covered with fur to help cover their face when they are asleep. In addition, snow leopards have large paws to stalk throw the snow more quietly. Another interesting fact is about their muzzle. Since wintery weather comes with very thin air supply in the mountains, they have a short muzzle with large nasal cavities and helps intake the most amount of air. Another cool fact about snow leopards is that they cannot roar unlike their relatives. Snow leopards lack a specialized larynx and hypoid apparatus. This now makes sense to me since Karma and Pasha are so quiet and content.