This story appears in the July 2020 issue of National Geographic magazine.
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Himalaya ‘ghost cats’ are finally coming into view
Tourists are getting unprecedented glimpses of snow leopards in India as attitudes toward the predators change.
A male snow leopard marks his territory in India’s Ladakh region. The cats spray urine, leave scratch marks, and rub facial glands on rocks to signal their presence. Unlike tigers, their closest relatives, snow leopards aren’t able to roar. Instead, they puff, meow, growl, and hiss.
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