Lake Tabourie resident Bill Barker has had an incredible close encounter with an endangered snow leopard while on a skiing tour in Kashmir.
Bill was part of a group of Australian adventurers skiing in the mountainous Gulmarg region of India when his tour guide, American Dave Marchi, was chased by the leopard.
The chase was caught on film by Owen Lansbury who posted it to his Facebook page.
He said the leopard “almost ran over” the tour guide who took evasive action.
“We skied our first powder line and the guide in yellow almost ran over the leopard,” Owen said.
“I stopped just as it huddled in the snow, where it stayed for about a minute checking us out.
“It then let out a solid roar and bounded away down the slope towards Dave, but scooted off into the forest, where we think it probably had a kill stashed.
“It was a pretty amazing experience!”
Watch Owen’s video here (strong language warning):
The tour group, consisting of three women and two men along with their guide, has been in the remote region of India, since January 31.
Snow leopards are endangered but pose little risk to humans
They listed as endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, with a 2003 study estimating the total wild population at between 4,080 and 6,590, and declining.
There are between 200 and 600 in India, with the remainder spread across a wide region extending from Nepal across India then north into Kazakhstan, and east to China and Mongolia.
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