The Mongolian Snow Leopard

Mongolia is home to one of the world’s most beautiful animals, the Snow Leopard (Panthera uncia). Sometimes known as the ounce, it is a large cat native to the mountain ranges of central and south Asia. Along with the Clouded Leopard, also found in the Himalayas and parts of China, it represents an intermediate between so-called big cats and smaller species, as it cannot roar, despite possessing a cartilaginous hyoid apparatus which is thought essential in allowing the big cats to do so.