How to Classify Snow Leopards

Classify the snow leopard based on its taxonomic position. This refers to the beast's affiliation with other living organisms, and by modern convention spans increasingly broader levels of categorization from species to kingdom. While there is still debate as to its genus, the International Union on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources gives it the species name of Panthera uncia, placing it in the genus Panthera along with lions, tigers, jaguars and leopards (it is also sometimes grouped on its own in genus Uncia). Above that rank it belongs to the family Felidae (the cats) in the order Carnivora; to the class Mammalia and the sub-phylum Vertebrata (those animals with backbones); within the phylum Chordata and the kingdom Animalia.

Rank the snow leopard in the informal classification of "big cat." This category is not a particularly scientific one, though most of its traditional members -- the lion, tiger, jaguar and leopard -- possess the ability to roar, mainly because of a modification to their larynx that other felids, including the snow leopard, lack. Despite not being able to roar, the snow leopard is often considered as a big cat due to its size, as is another New World cat, the puma. Tigers are the heaviest of all big cats, with lions a close second; both these carnivores may rarely weigh 600 lbs or more. Jaguars are next in size, and the puma -- which cannot roar -- is fourth. Snow leopards are usually slightly smaller than true leopards, typically weighing between 55 and 120 lb., though large males may reach 150 lb.

Consider the cat's ecological role for another kind of classification. Like every other organism, the snow leopard has its own particular niche -- a sort of ecological "job" it performs in the ecosystem with which it is associated. In the mountainous steppe and scrub of its range, the snow leopard is a secondary consumer -- that is, it gets its energy by preying on other animals -- and an apex predator, a creature resting at the top of the food chain that is not regularly hunted by anything else. It does, however, compete with other top predators of its landscape, like gray wolves. Snow leopards primarily hunt ibex and blue sheep, but will eat anything from marmots to boar and livestock. Immensely powerful, they can dispatch animals three times their own weight.