“Yak Herd’s Defense: Snow Leopard’s Risky Move Sparks Tense Standoff”

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On the craggy cliffs of the Himalayas lies a fearsome predatory creature that has a cousin to the tiger but is often mistaken for a leopard because of its name ‘snow leopard’.

They can hunt prey as large as 2 to 3 times their own weight such as sheep, Himalayan short-horned mountain goats, Pakistani chamois, horses and camels.

But this time the snow leopard almost had to pay a heavy price when choosing its prey, the yak, which is the largest creature in the snow leopard’s habitat. Although she persisted in keeping the calf, the mother cow’s efforts made the snow leopard give up this prey.

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Like tigers, snow leopards like to live and hunt alone, avoiding humans, so they are dubbed “the ghosts of the mountains” and are also extremely successful predators.

To adapt to hunting in the cliffs, its tail is much longer than similar species for balance and the ability to jump up to 9 m to hunt on precarious mountains.

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