Pink Panther of Siberia, a rare snow leopard is caught by a photo trap high in the Altai mountains

The four years old snow leopard is one of 17 cats currently registered in the national park on Russia’s border with Mongolia.

It was last seen in 2018, and before that as a cub with the mother in 2017. The gender of the snow leopard is still unknown. 

The new photo trap picture confirms that the grown up animal is doing well after separating from its mother.

These animals living high up in the mountains are extremely cautious, and every new picture caught by a system of camera traps adds precious information about well-being of the snow leopards population. 

'Back in summer 2018 Zvezda was photographed by ornithologist Elena Schneider', said Denis Malikov, science deputy director of the Saylyugem national park.

'Meeting a snow leopard was like meeting a dragon’, Shneider said about her feelings of suddenly catching the sight of the rare predator. 

'The cat was lying down as if it wanted to be photographed', the ornithologist added. 

'Meeting a snow leopard was like meeting a dragon’, Elena Shneider said about her feelings of suddenly catching the sight of the rare predator 

Russia has from 70 to 90 snow leopards living in the wild, with about 30 of them populating different areas of the Altai mountains.

The team of the Saylyugem National Park together with WWF Russia has long been working to involve local hunters into snow leopards conservation project.

In recent years life of at least nine snow leopards was monitored with the help of former poachers.