This beautiful big cat, with smoky grey fur dotted with black spots and rosettes, has an uncanny ability to disappear among the rocks and rugged slopes it inhabits. Living in patches of suitable habitat among the Earth’s most remote and challenging regions, snow leopards have likely always been rare, and rarely seen as well. Nonetheless, this cat’s charisma is so great that it figures largely in the cultures of predominantly pastoral people in its range, and is a symbol of high-mountain ecosystems.
Saving Kyrgyzstan’s snow leopards is of high priority for the survival of the species. This is because the country lies between northern snow leopard populations, in Russia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan, and the more southerly ones in the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges. Snow leopards are migratory, and Kyrgyzstan serves as a corridor between these two populations. Their intermixing strengthens the overall gene pool.
Popular Culture
The snow leopard is an important cultural symbol in Central Asia and figures widely in folklore and local beliefs. An example of this is the supernatural beings of the Wakhi people of Central Asia, which are said to have taken the form of snow leopards. The snow leopard is the state animal of the cities of Bishkek in the Kyrgyz Republic, Samarkand in Uzbekistan, and Astana and Almaty in Kazakhstan.
The mountains themselves have a special role in cultures and beliefs of people in the snow leopard range. Many mountain communities have deep spiritual beliefs that stem from the mountain environment, and particular mountains and sites are embedded as shrines or pilgrimage destinations. The grandeur of the high mountains of Central Asia has also inspired artists, poets, and mountaineers through the ages.