"Gorgeous animals which survive in world's most rugged, desolate Central Asian mountain ranges (e.g., Himalaya, Pamirs, Karakorum, etc.). Snow leopard population is dwindling, facing possible extinction, & extremely difficult to photograph." (thanks, openthink)

The direct link to National Geographic (gallery and article) is http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/snow-leopards/winter-photography

An interesting clip from lesart - Snow Leopard - Painting a large canvas - http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/8719DBB7-221A-4287-850B-35EFC0B2F240/

pokkets has Big Cat News: http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/7F9D8E94-25EC-4894-8279-64E13A1E8840/

Such a strikingly beautiful animal.

Beautiful

I love big cats, and the Snow Leopard is especially
beautiful.

And they speak very highly of you.

Fantastic images Alan. The BBC showed some very rare footage of a snow leopard on their Planet Earth series a couple of years ago - well worth checking out.

There's also a cool video to go along with the snow leopard story, explaining how wildlife photographer Steve Winter took these amazing shots of snow leopards. The crew trekked into the Himalaya with loads of equipment in winter (-30 degrees) and set up cameras on some of the most promising leopard trails, and waited for the big cats to snap their own photos:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/video/player?titleID=1531274057

fab

Sexy cats!