To spot or not? This snow leopard’s coat is peak camouflage — and it’s seemingly snowhere in sight.
Only eagle-eyed viewers can solve this wintry optical illusion, which challenges people to spot a snow leopard on a snowy mountain in 60 seconds or less.
{Warning: Spoilers below.]
The paw-inspiring snap, shot by Indian wildlife photographer Hira Punjabi, 57, shows a snow-covered rock in the Himalayas with the elusive feline seemingly nowhere in sight, per The Sun.
However, if viewers look closely, they can see the big cat prowling the lower right-hand corner of the frame, immaculately camouflaged against the white and dark brown backdrop some 14,000 feet above sea level.
The pic wasn’t just challenging for optical illusion buffs. To capture the “grey ghost of the Himalayas,” Punjabi had to climb way up in the mountains, where the “temperature was between -20 and -30 degrees and the oxygen was very thin,” he said.
“I had to use a hand warmer all day to keep my hands from freezing, otherwise I would not have been able to operate my camera,” added the Mumbai-based photographer.
However, Punjabi says the magnificent shot was worth the frigid weather.
“It was a dream come true after 30 years,” gushed the cat fan. “I have photographed thousands of images of tigers, lions and leopards in India, but this is the first time I have seen a snow leopard.”
This isn’t the first snow leopard-centric illusion to make puzzle buffs’ eyes cross. In this purr-plexing photograph, shot by Australian photog Bobby Jo-Vial, the high-altitude hunter is similarly indistinguishable from its mountainous habitat.
It’s long been established that, out of the big cat species, snow leopards in particular are masters at camouflage.
An article from the World Wildlife Fund explains: “Their long fur and less distinctive markings that seem to change shape with body movement make identifying individual snow leopards difficult compared to other big cats like tigers, leopards and jaguars, which have more distinctive markings.”
Snow leopards are currently considered to be a vulnerable species, with the WWF estimating that there could be as few as 4,000 snow leopards in the wild. The exact number remains unknown as they are, indeed, a rather elusive animal.
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