Snow leopard

The snow leopard (Panthera uncia), also known as the ounce, is a large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because the global population is estimated to number less than 10,000 mature individuals and decline about 10% until 2040. It is threatened by poaching and habitat destruction following infrastructural developments.It inhabits alpine and subalpine zones at elevations from 3,000 to 4,500 m (9,800 to 14,800 ft), ranging from eastern Afghanistan to Mongolia and western China. In the northern range countries, it also occurs at lower elevations. Taxonomically, the snow leopard was long classified in the monotypic genus Uncia. Since phylogenetic studies revealed the relationships among Panthera species, it is considered a member of this genus. Two subspecies were described based on morphological differences, but genetic differences between the two have not been confirmed. It is therefore regarded a monotypic species. Both the Latinized specific epithet uncia and the occasional English name ounce are derived from the Old French once, originally used for the European lynx. Once itself is believed to have arisen by false splitting from an earlier variant of lynx, lonce – where lonce was interpreted as l'once, in which l' is the elided form of the French definite article la ('the'), leaving once to be perceived as the animal's name. This, like the English version ounce, came to be used for other lynx-sized cats, and eventually for the snow leopard. The word panther derives from classical Latin panthēra, itself from the ancient Greek pánthēr (πάνθηρ). Felis uncia was the scientific name used by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber in 1777 who described a snow leopard based on an earlier description by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, assuming that the cat occurred in Barbary, Persia, East India, and China. Uncia was proposed by John Edward Gray in 1854 who grouped Asian cats with a long and thick tail into this genus. Felis irbis was proposed by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg in 1830 who described a skin of a female snow leopard collected in the Altai Mountains in Siberia. He also clarified that several leopard skins were previously misidentified as snow leopard skins.Felis uncioides was proposed by Thomas Horsfield in 1855 for a snow leopard skin presented to the Museum of the East India Company. Uncia uncia was used by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1930 when he reviewed skins and skulls of Panthera species from Asia. He also described morphological differences between leopard (P. pardus) and snow leopard skins.Panthera baikalensis-romanii was proposed by a Russian scientist in 2000 for a dark brown snow leopard skin from the Petrovsk-Zabaykalsky District, southern Transbaikal region. It has been subordinated to the genus Panthera based on results of phylogenetic studies.Until spring 2017, there was no evidence available for the recognition of subspecies. Results of a phylogeographic study published in September 2017 indicate that three subspecies should be recognised: P. u. uncia in the Pamir Mountains range countries, P. u. uncioides in the Himalayas and Qinghai, and P. u. irbis in Mongolia.