Snow Leopard Facts for Kids

It is this uniqueness that makes it so fascinating and popular among kids, adults, scientists, and nature fans. It's hard to find a cat quite like it, and they're a lot better at hiding than we are at studying them.

Snow leopards are smaller than other wild cats, weighing around 60 to 120 pounds (25-55 kg), with a body around 2 to 4 feet long (.7 to 1.3m). Their thick, pale fur coat helps them blend into the winter wilderness, and keeps them warm in the frozen, mountainous regions they prefer.

While they're fairly large, they're not considered one of the "big cats," since they can't roar, even though they're closely related to them, especially tigers, though scientists still debate where exactly the snow leopard belongs on the cat family tree.

Larger nasal passages help snow leopards breathe in the higher elevations, where the air is thin and provides less oxygen.

And, of course, their pale fur coats help them blend into the environment, with their spots acting like camouflage when hiding among the bushes, keeping them hidden from their prey while they're out hunting.

Snow leopards, like all wild cats, are great hunters, and will eat anything they can get their paws on, from small animals like rabbits, birds, and rodents, to much larger prey like goats, boars, or deer. A snow leopard can even take down an animal several times its size. In fact, the only animal in the region a snow leopard has trouble with is an adult yak.

When hunting their prey, a snow leopard prefers to ambush the animal from above, jumping down from the rocks overhead and chasing the animal down the mountainside. It finishes off its prey with a bite to the neck, after which it will drag the body to a safe place to eat.

After that, the cubs will leave their mother, explore and find their own territory, and live solitary lives in the mountains until they find another snow leopard to breed with, and the cycle starts all over again.

A snow leopard is most active in the morning and evening, when it goes exploring in search of food. And although they can be territorial, snow leopards are less aggressive about defending their territory, unlike many other solitary creatures.

In the wild, they'll live 15 to 18 years, and up to 21 years in captivity.

If people are willing to support these efforts and find ways to live alongside them, future generations will be able to enjoy this beautiful animal just as we do.