Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
50 free Snow Leopard trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This snow leopard trivia quiz covers the biology of Asia's high-mountain cat: why it is a Panthera that cannot roar, its blanket of a tail, the fur on its paw pads, how it hunts blue sheep and ibex down near-vertical slopes, its 90-100 day gestation, its 12-country range from the Hindu Kush to Siberia and why it can live at 6,000 metres. It also covers the snow leopard's history and culture: the old name 'ounce', Schreber's 1777 description and Pocock's genus Uncia, the Aq Bars of the Tatars and Kazakhs, the emblems of Almaty and Bishkek, the Moscow and Bronx zoos, Peter Matthiessen's National Book Award-winning The Snow Leopard, Apple's Mac OS X 10.6, and the Snow Leopard Trust. Conservation questions cover the Vulnerable listing, poaching figures, the 2013 Bishkek forum and India's 2024 census of 718 animals. Every question was verified against a primary reference (mainly the Wikipedia articles on the snow leopard and related topics) and carries a citation. Play it alongside our leopard, big cats and Himalaya quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the snow leopard's scientific name?
Panthera uncia
It was long placed in its own genus Uncia, until DNA showed it belonged with the lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars in Panthera.
Q 02Which big cat is the snow leopard's closest relative, forming a sister group with it?
The tiger
The two probably diverged between 3.7 and 2.7 million years ago; despite the name, it is not the leopard.
Q 03The old snow leopard name 'ounce' ultimately derives from the Greek word for which animal?
Lynx
It came through Old French 'l'once'; the Latin species name uncia has the same root.
Q 04Who first described the snow leopard scientifically, as Felis uncia, in 1777?
Johann Schreber
He worked from Buffon's earlier account and wrongly assumed the cat lived along North Africa's Barbary Coast.
Q 05Why can the snow leopard not roar, unlike its Panthera cousins?
Its vocal folds are too short
Its 9 mm vocal folds offer too little resistance to airflow; instead it meows, grunts, moans and can purr as it exhales.
Q 06What does a snow leopard use its thick, fur-covered tail for when sleeping?
Wrapping it round its face like a blanket
The tail is 80-105 cm long, thick with stored fat, and also acts as a balance pole on cliffs.
Q 07What is unusual about the undersides of a snow leopard's paws?
They are furred
The fur improves grip on steep, unstable ground and cuts heat loss; broad paws spread its weight on snow.
Q 08How long are the hairs of the snow leopard's coat?
5 to 12 cm
The fur is whitish to grey with black head spots and larger rosettes on the back and flanks.
Q 09How much does a male snow leopard typically weigh?
45 to 55 kg
Females are 35-40 kg; it is slightly smaller than the other Panthera cats.
Q 10Why are the snow leopard's nasal openings unusually large?
To warm cold, dry air with each breath
Oddly, it is not especially adapted to the low oxygen of high altitude.
Q 11At what elevations does the snow leopard mainly live?
3,000 to 4,500 m
In summer it can range up to 6,000 m above the tree line; in winter it drops to 1,200-2,000 m.
Q 12How many countries make up the snow leopard's range?
12
Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Q 13The snow leopard's distribution begins west of which great Siberian body of water?
Lake Baikal
From there it ranges through southern Siberia, the Altai and Tian Shan to the Hindu Kush and Himalayas.
Q 21How many times a day may paired snow leopards mate?
12 to 36
The mating season is so short that males rarely seek a second partner.
Q 22How does a female snow leopard line her birthing den?
With fur shed from her underside
Cubs are born blind, already furry, weighing 320-567 g, and open their eyes at about a week.
Q 23What is the largest litter recorded for a snow leopard?
Seven
The usual litter is two or three; cubs part from their mothers at around 20-22 months.
Q 24How long do snow leopards normally live in the wild?
Q 14How deep is the snow a snow leopard can move through?
85 cm
It still prefers to follow trails made by other animals.
Q 15What is the snow leopard's favourite wild prey in the Himalayas?
Himalayan blue sheep
One adult needs 20-30 blue sheep a year and can live two weeks on a single kill.
Q 16Which is probably the only ungulate in its habitat a snow leopard cannot kill?
The adult male wild yak
It also eats grass and twigs, and was once photographed carrying a woolly flying squirrel.
Q 17How far can a snow leopard chase prey down a mountainside using the momentum of its first leap?
Up to 300 m
It then drags the kill somewhere safe and eats every edible part.
Q 18How many attacks on humans by snow leopards have been reported, and with what outcome?
Three, none deadly
A rabid animal in 1940 and an old toothless one near Almaty, and a 2026 mauling of a tourist in Koktokay, China, who tried to take a photo with it.
Q 19How does a snow leopard usually react when a herder drives it off its prey?
It gives it up without a fight
That timidity is one reason it has never killed a person.
Q 20How long is a snow leopard's gestation?
90 to 100 days
Unusually for a big cat it has a marked birth peak: cubs arrive between April and June after late-winter mating.
15 to 18 years
In captivity they can reach 25.
Q 25A Gobi Desert study found adult males used home ranges of what size?
144 to 270 km2
About 40% of the 170 protected areas in the range are smaller than a single male's territory.
Q 26How does the IUCN classify the snow leopard?
Vulnerable
Fewer than 10,000 mature animals remain and a 10% decline is expected by 2040.
Q 27India's 2024 snow leopard estimate put the national population at how many?
718
Ladakh alone holds an estimated 380-598, with about two per 100 km2 in Hemis National Park.
Q 28Which Xinjiang city is the major centre of the illegal snow leopard skin trade?
Kashgar
An estimated 103 to 236 snow leopards are poached in China every year.
Q 29Climate change is expected to shrink snow leopard habitat by roughly how much as the treeline rises?
30%
A rising treeline squeezes the alpine zone the cats depend on.
Q 30Where was the 2013 Global Snow Leopard Forum, which united all 12 range countries, held?
Bishkek
The government of Kyrgyzstan hosted it; the Kyrgyz regard the cat as sacred.