Snow leopards are built for mountain life. Their wide, furry paws work like snowshoes, spreading their weight so they do not sink into deep snow. Their long tails — almost as long as their whole body — help them balance on narrow rocky ledges. They wrap their tail around themselves like a scarf to keep warm when they sleep.
A snow leopard's coat is pale grey or cream with dark spots and rosettes — patterns that look almost exactly like the rocks and patches of snow they live among. Even experienced researchers looking for them in the right area can walk within a few metres of a resting snow leopard without seeing it.
Snow leopards are very strong for their size and can leap huge distances across mountain ravines. They hunt ibex, Marco Polo sheep and smaller animals. Unlike most big cats, snow leopards cannot roar — instead they make a range of other sounds including a beautiful, haunting call called a 'chuff'.
Kyrgyzstan is one of the most important places in the world for snow leopards. Local communities and conservation groups work together to protect them and to count how many exist, using camera traps — cameras triggered automatically when an animal walks past. Scientists think there are only about 4,000–6,500 snow leopards left in the whole world.