A beauty better off unseen

For most of us, a snow leopard is a shy and elusive cat but a stealthy and deadly animal - a predator that sits on top of the food chain across central and South Asia's rugged 1,230,000 sq km mountainous regions.

But the animal is no match for us humans. Cangmujian villagers in Rongxia township of Tingri county in the south of the Tibet autonomous region trapped a snow leopard in a cave after it killed a cow earlier this month. The village is at the foot of Mount Qomolangma, and thankfully officials persuaded the villagers to release the poor animal.

I said "thankfully" because it was not killed like Longtail, a snow leopard being studied by the Snow Leopard Trust in Mongolia.