An image of a snow leopard, one of the most covert creatures, was snapped by wildlife photographer Sascha Fonseca and is currently going viral. The large cat is seen growling at the camera.
Wildlife photographers go to extraordinary pains to get rare and magnificent images. To photograph the ideal stance of an animal, they must spend days, and often even weeks, in dense forests or arid landscapes.
Also Read| Watch: A mother elephant saves her baby from drowning
The extraordinary photo, which Mr Fonseca captured in the Ladakh highlands, was posted on his Instagram account.
The snow leopard meshes into its frosty surroundings by using its white and grey coat as natural camouflage. The ghost of the mountains is another name for it.
Also Read| Top 5 countries with the most UNESCO World Heritage sites
Fonseca used a motion-activated DSLR camera trap to get his photographs of this secretive mammal, which is difficult to photograph in the field.
His caption read- “A Snow leopard youngster interacts with my camera trap in the mountains of Ladakh. He is probably reacting to the shutter sound of the DSLR.”
On Instagram, the post has already gotten more than 23,000 likes. Users have swarmed the comment area with praise for the photographer’s stunning snap.
Also Read| Mexico’s Museum of Memory and Tolerance ushers in Pride month
According to his Instagram bio, Fonseca is working on the Amur Tiger project in Far Eastern Russia as part of his aim to inspire wildlife conservation.
When a fully-fledged snow leopard was spotted in March of this year at a height of 12,500 feet close to Kaza in the Spiti Valley of Himachal Pradesh, the video took over social media. The internet is a fan of this wild creature.
The animal was snapped by ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) personnel and tweeted about by the news organisation ANI.
Also Read| Brandy joins Jack Harlow for surprise BET Awards performance. Watch
The high-altitude, highlands of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh are where snow leopards are most typically observed in India.
While captive animals suffer in zoos, circuses, and under private ownership, wild leopards are endangered mostly owing to human pressures and habitat degradation.
Big cats still pace around in modern zoos, dissatisfied that their natural instincts for hunting and territoriality aren’t being honoured.
Although they frequently reproduce successfully in captivity, it is very difficult and nearly never happens to release a big cat back into the wild.
