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Video of snow leopards playing with each other in Ladakh’s Zanskar stuns the Internet: ‘Fleeting dance of wild joy’

The 28-second video captures snow leopards leaping and sprinting through the snow-covered valley in Ladakh.

A nationwide survey estimates India is home to at least 718 snow leopards in the western Himalayas (Image source: @supriyasahuias/X)

Winter transforms Ladakh into a winter wonderland. The valley gets covered with snow from late November till March, and temperature dips to sub-zero levels often. Now, a video of two snow leopards playing in the snow in Ladakh’s Zanskar region has stunned netizens.

Sharing the viral video on X, IAS Supriya Sahu wrote, “A fleeting dance of wild joy – Snow leopards somewhere in Zanskar valley in Ladakh.” The 28-second video captures snow leopards leaping and sprinting, and playing with each other.

Watch the video here:

A fleeting dance of wild joy – Snow leopards somewhere in Zanskar valley in Ladakh

🎥 tashizkr pic.twitter.com/gkZ8pmDbZM

— Supriya Sahu IAS (@supriyasahuias) January 6, 2025

Many social media users reacted to the video. One wrote, “Real natural pleasure of leopards. Nice to watch. Wish we have similar spontaneous pleasures. Gid bless the nature.” Another user wrote, “Zanakar is almost Paradise.”

“One of the rare videos of leopards playing in snow. Beautiful to eyes,” a third user said.

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As per the World Wild Fund (WWF) website, snow leopards are sparsely distributed across 12 countries in Central Asia amid rugged mountain terrains. In India, they are primarily found in the high-altitude regions of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh. A nation-wide survey estimates India is home to at least 718 snow leopards in the western Himalayas.

Like most big cats, snow leopards are solitary creatures and are seldom seen in pairs. They are expert predators, capable of taking down prey up to three times their own weight. Unfortunately, they are a highly endangered species, facing significant threats from poaching for their fur, bones, and other body parts.