Snow leopards first found in NW Yunnan

Two snow leopards were spotted at altitudes of 4,500 meters within the city of Shangri-La and 4,800 meters in a township in Deqen county, respectively. Both places are located in northwest Yunnan's Diqing prefecture.

One snow leopard is seen in northwest Yunnan's Deqen county.

The recordings were made on Feb 17 and 19 this year, and it is the first time to confirm the presence of this endangered species in Yunnan province, according to a Xinhua report.

"The recent sightings in the northwestern part of Yunnan not only confirm the species' presence in the province," said Jiang Xuelong, a researcher at the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

 

The other snow leopard is seen in northwest Yunnan's Shangri-La city. 

The zoologists at the institute said that there may be other potential snow leopard distribution areas within Yunnan, such as Drung-Nu autonomous county of Gongshan at the western side of the Nujiang River and the area of Mount Minling, or Meili Snow Mountain, between the Nujiang and Lancang rivers.

Known as the "king of the snow mountains," the snow leopard is under first-class national protection in China and is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.