Who knew that a 90 pound apex predator sounds like a gently squeezed squeaky toy?

Direct link in case the video doesn’t load: https://imgur.com/tErMOz9 (sound on, of course.)

    • tal@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 day ago

      https://biologydictionary.net/snow-leopard/

      Snow leopards are apex predators, which means that they sit at the top of the food chain and have no natural predators themselves.

      On the other hand, that’s “natural” predators, which explicitly excludes humans. We have our own unique tier in the chain.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_leopard

      The snow leopard is easily driven away from livestock and readily abandons kills, often without defending itself.[31] Only two attacks on humans have been reported, both near Almaty in Kazakhstan, and neither were fatal. In 1940, a rabid snow leopard attacked two men; and an old, toothless emaciated individual attacked a person passing by.[53][54]

      https://www.newscientist.com/article/2109894-hundreds-of-endangered-wild-snow-leopards-are-killed-each-year/

      Hundreds of endangered wild snow leopards are killed each year

      As many as 450 endangered snow leopards have been killed each year since 2008, a report on the fate of the mountain cats estimates.

      A big surprise is that more than half the killings – 55 per cent – are estimated to be done by herders avenging livestock attacks by leopards, with only 21 per cent of the cats taken by poachers.

      Only 4000 to 7000 of the animals are thought to remain in the 12 mountainous Asian countries they inhabit.

      That is, we annually kill something like 3%-10% of the global snow leopard population. They have never been known to kill a human, and have very rarely attacked one.