Farmers in Tibet have found a snow
leopard at the northern foot of Mount Qomolangma, also known as Everest,
said the local forestry department.
 The
leopard was spotted near Cangmujian Village, Rongxia Township in Tingri,
a county in southern Tibet early this month, said the Tingri County
Forestry Department.
According to villagers, the big cat was an adult 120 cm long and
about 50 cm tall, and it had a 120 cm tail. But the sex of the animal is
unknown.
 Villagers
trapped the animal in a cave after it killed an adult cow, said the
forestry department. The department and the Mount Qomolangma
Administration sent workers to investigate. They effectively persuaded
the villagers to free the leopard.
Snow leopards live in mountains and plateaus across China,
Afghanistan, India and Nepal. The number of surviving wild snow leopards
is estimated at 3,500, more than half of which live in the remote high
mountains of northwest Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan in
China, said the International Snow Leopard
Trust (ISLT).The animal has rarely been seen in the wild recently and
is worth a great deal to poachers.According to Liu Wulin, a Tibet-based
forestry expert, the last capture of a snow leopard, a female one aged
five to six, took place in December 2007 in Qijia Village in Gonghe
County, Hainan Tibet Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province,
northwest China.
|
Snow leopard facts
Scientific name:
Panthera uncia
Normal weight: 60 Kilos
Normal length: 127 centimeters
Found in: China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan,
India, Mongolia, Russia,Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan -
a total area of nearly two million sq km.
Litter: Usually 2-3 cubs. Mothers protect cubs until
they are two years old.
Prey: Blue sheep, wild sheep, ibex (a wild goat),
hare, livestock
Threats: Poaching, loss of prey, loss of habitat to
man and livestock, killings by farmers and herders Total
number in wild: around 3,500
Endangered: Yes |
- Xinhua
|
