Watch: Local Family Spots Rare & Elusive Snow Leopard Walking Along A Road In Himachal Pradesh
The elusive cat made an appearance at an altitude of 14400 feet above sea level on a road in Himachals Spiti Indian Forest Services officer Susanta Nanda took to Twitter on Monday to share a video of the sighting.
Snow leopard, known as the ghost of the mountain is known to be extremely elusive - it's rarely spotted and hard to photograph. So, when a snow leopard decided to show up in Himachal Pradesh, it both stumped and amazed wildlife enthusiasts.
Twitter
The elusive cat made an appearance at an altitude of 14,400 feet above sea level on a road in Himachal's Spiti.
Majestic grandeur in the tranquility of Spiti District??Snow leopard is the most beautiful & mystical big cats with grey/green eyes,unlike the yellow eyes of other big cats.Tails as long as de body& 5inch fur at bottom to survive cold weathe,rare to see these ghost of de mountain pic.twitter.com/iiEAGaWgop
¡ª Susanta Nanda IFS (@susantananda3) February 17, 2020
Indian Forest Services officer Susanta Nanda took to Twitter on Monday to share a video of the sighting. Filmed at Hikkim village in Himachal's Lahaul and Spiti district, the video shows a snow leopard walking down a snow-covered road, close to a tourist vehicle.
'Snow leopard is the most beautiful and mystical big cats with grey/green eyes, unlike the yellow eyes of other big cats', wrote Nanda, while sharing the video. He added that these striking big cats have tails as long as their bodies and five inches of fur to protect them from the cold. 'Rare to see these ghost of the mountains'.
Here's how Twitter reacted:
#1
A rare sighting indeed!!!
¡ª Nistula Hebbar (@nistula) February 17, 2020
#2
Amazing. Wonder what made such an elusive and shy animal come so close to the road and car.
¡ª Rajesh Kalra (@rajeshkalra) February 17, 2020
#3
Splendid! High point of the day! Thanks so much for capturing this captivating carnivore! ???
¡ª ashagkumar (@AshaGKumar1) February 18, 2020
#4
That's some CatWalk ?
¡ª ???? ?????? ?? (@MayankTiwari011) February 17, 2020
A family in the remote village of Hikkim spotted the cat when they were travelling in a car, reported TOI. The family was headed to Kaza town when the driver noticed the cat. He immediately took his phone out and started filming the cat's movements.
India is believed to have a population of 200 to 600 snow leopards, and Spiti valley is considered to be one of India's most important snow leopard landscapes.
