Endangered snow leopards spotted in Uzbekistan

The endangered snow leopard has been spotted, for the first time in Uzbekistan.

Better, a camera trap snapped not one but two elusive cats roaming the wild in Gissar Nature Reserve - a protected part of the Pamir Mountains, showed images released by conservation groups Panthera and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

In Uzbekistan, the cats had previously been confirmed only through traditional surveys and rare sightings, said a report on livescience.com.

It's estimated that only 3,500 to 7,000 of the endangered cats are left across the world.

"Panthera has provided over 300 camera traps through partnerships such as this to better document the range of this elusive and endangered cat of central Asia's mountains," Tom McCarthy, executive director of Panthera's snow leopard programme, was quoted as saying on LiveScience.com.

In November last year, a five-year-old snow leopard was spotted in Nepal, a first for the country.