Snow Leopard 23cm - Soft Toy

Physical Characteristics
The snow leopard, known and prized for its beautiful, thick fur, has a white, yellowish or soft gray coat with ringed spots of black on brown. The markings help camouflage it from prey. With their thick coats, heavy fur-lined tails and paws covered with fur, snow leopards are perfectly adapted to the cold and dry habitats in which they live.

Habitat
Snow leopards are found at altitudes between 9800 and 17,000 feet in the high, rugged mountains of Central Asia. Their range spans from Afghanistan to Kazakstan and Russia in the north to India and China in the east.

Behaviour
Snow leopards prefer to inhabit steep cliff areas, rocky outcrops and ravines. Such habitats provide them with the camouflage they need to ambush unsuspecting prey. Solitary in nature, they pair only during the breeding season. Mostly active at dawn and dusk, snow leopards are rarely seen in the wild as they are very reclusive creatures.

Breeding
Female snow leopards give birth to a litter of 2 or 3 in rocky dens lined with their fur between January and mid-March after a gestation period of 3-3.5 months. The young follow their mother on hunts at three months and remain with her through their first winter.

Diet
The snow leopard mainly eats wild sheep and goats but is also known to eat Smaller animals like rodents, hares and game birds.

Strange and Interesting Facts
Unlike other big cats, snow leopards are unable to roar.