Polish “Snow Leopard”
Posted by: Loren Coleman on April 7th, 2009
Residents in south western Poland are living in fear of a mysterious predator blamed for attacking and killing livestock, it has been reported during the last several days of March 2009.
The animal is thought to be a rare snow leopard. It’s has been sighted numerous times around Opole and has even been recorded on a mobile phone camera by a resident of Biala village.
At another location, a driver informed the police that a big cat had jumped over his moving car while chasing a deer.
Unless it is an escaped pet and they are extremely rare in zoos let alone as privately captives, this is probably not a “snow leopard.”
The snow leopard (Uncia uncia or Panthera uncia) is a moderately large cat not found in Europe, but is native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia, especially famous as a great cat of the Himalayan mountain ranges. Of the dozen countries known to have snow leopard populations, these are Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
The geographic distribution stretches from the Hindukush in eastern Afghanistan and the Syr Darya through the mountains of Pamir Mountains, Tian Shan, Karakorum, Kashmir, Kunlun, and the Himalaya to southern Siberia, where the range covers the Russian Altai mountains, Sajan, Tannu-Ola mountains and the mountains to the west of Lake Baikal. In Mongolia it is found in the Mongolian and Gobi Altai and the Khangai Mountains. In Tibet, the snow leopard is found up to the Altyn-Tagh in the North, according to quick reference points in Wikipedia.
Thanks to Gavin Joth for the heads up.
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Interesting reports always come out of Poland and other Slavic countries. And I’m not being ironic here. Great report, Loren. Wouldn’t it be awesome if it WAS a snow leopard?
I suggest, an Eurasian lynx, (Lynx lynx), maybe? It occurs in Russia and Poland.
I, also, think that a lynx is the most likely cat to be seen in the wild in that area.
Does it ever happen that bob-tailed cats like bobcats, lynx and manx ever have a regular long tail? I suppose it would matter if it is a damaged gene or a turned off gene in the development process controls that is involved.
There are anecdotal accounts of long-tailed bobcats but I’ve never seen anything to convince me that they really existed. Sometimes - very rarely - bobcats mate with domestic cats, and the offspring can have tails of different lengths.
To the best of my knowledge, no lynxes with long tails have been found, and wild Eurasian lynx do not hybridize with other Eurasian cats (although they have been crossed with Canada lynxes in captivity).
Eurasian lynxes are the largest of the lynxes and at a glance they look larger than they really are, because their legs are so long compared to most cats’ legs. Their faces have very vivid markings and their eyes are large. Seeing one suddenly would make quite an impression on someone and I can see how they could be mistaken for a larger cat.