Snow leopard is a moderately large mountain cat which
occupies higher reaches of Himalayas between 3,350 and 6,700 metres above sea
level. They have long thick fur and
their colour varies from smoky grey to yellowish tan with whitish under parts. They
have dark grey to black open rosettes on their body. The snow leopard cannot
roar and their vocalization includes hisses, chuffing, mews, growls, and
wailing. They prey mainly on mountain ungulates such as blue sheep, Himalayan Tahr
and Goral but also feed on birds, rodents and similar small animals. The Meadows
that their main prey base (mountain ungulates) feed on is also visited by
shepherds with their cattle, resulting in less food availability for wild
ungulates. The main threats they face is decline in prey base, conflict with
humans and poaching.
Snow leopard listed as endangered on the IUCN Red list of threatened species.
The tiger, also called the Bengal tiger, is the largest
member of the cat family. There are nine subspecies of tiger of which five
survive today. The tiger is India’s national animal. Males and females are
similar looking with a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with
lighter under parts. They have exceptionally stout teeth, and their canines are
the longest among living cats. They are territorial and generally solitary,
animal often requiring large contiguous areas of habitat that support their prey
which consist mainly of large mammals such as Sambar, Chital, Barasingha wild
pig and Nilgai. Threast faced by the tiger include habitat loss, decline in
prey base leading to conflict with humans and poaching. Their numbers have
decline to 1706 (vide a cansus conductes in 2011) from 4,000 about ten years
ago. Uttarakhand currently supports a
healthy tiger population of approximately 250 tiger, most of which are confined
to Corbett tiger reserve and its adjoining forests.
