Planet Earth II: Mountains, the second episode of the all-new Planet Earth 2 miniseries, debuted in the UK yesterday and from what I’ve gathered so far Ep. 2 was just as mind-blowing as the first. By now, I’m guessing that 100% of you have seen the ‘iguana vs. snakes’ footage from episode 1 because I’ve blogged about it no less than three times already here on BroBible. And while this snow leopard footage from Planet Earth II: Mountains doesn’t really have the shock value of that snakes clip I think this footage of the extremely rare and elusive snow leopard might ultimately end up getting more views on Youtube. Why? Because it shows that all cats are just kitties, no matter how big or small. They use markings the same way a house cat or feral cat does to let the neighbors know what’s up and whose territory they are invading.
In the wild, there are only ~4 snow leopards for every 40 square miles, and estimates suggest there are only 6,000 snow leopards left in the wild worldwide (across several countries). To put that into perspective, there are an estimated 1 MILLION whitetail deer in the United States alone. Going further, there are an estimated 1 million bobcats in the wild worldwide. But how many times have you seen a bobcat? I feel like I’ve actually seen quite a few, as far as sightings go, having seeing maybe 8 at most throughout my life. That’s with ONE MILLION bobcats in the wild…Now think about that number once more: there are an estimated 6,000 snow leopards left in the ENTIRE world, spread across six countries.
This Planet Earth II footage is absolutely stunning, and an interaction that’s never been witnessed before until now. We live in a beautiful world, and we should never forget that.
[h/t TheLadBible]