A Snow Leopard Attacked a Skier Taking a Selfie in China and the Video Is Exactly What You Think
On January 23, at the Keketuohai Scenic Area in Fuyun County, Xinjiang, China, a woman spotted a snow leopard while heading back to her hotel after a day of skiing. Instead of doing what every survival instinct in the human body tells you to do -- which is leave -- she got out of her vehicle, pulled out her phone, and walked toward it.
Ten feet. She got within ten feet of a 60-kilogram apex predator built to kill mountain goats on cliff faces at 15,000 feet elevation.
The snow leopard did what snow leopards do. It lunged at her face.
The Video
The footage that went viral shows a figure in a purple ski suit sprawled on snow, blood visible on her face, with the leopard sitting nearby in a watchful stance. In a second clip, two bystanders drag her upright as she clutches her face beneath a ski helmet. Fellow tourists had reportedly warned her not to approach. She kept going. She wanted a better angle.
Watch the footage here.
A ski instructor eventually scared the animal off by waving ski poles at it. The woman was rushed to Fuyun County People's Hospital. Doctors described her injuries as serious but stable. Her ski helmet, they said, is the reason she still has a skull intact. Without it, the attack would have been fatal.
The Irony That Writes Itself
Snow leopards are one of the most endangered big cats on the planet. Between 4,000 and 6,500 remain in the wild, spread across the mountains of Central and South Asia. They are so elusive that researchers call them the "ghost of the mountains." Decades of conservation work -- habitat protection, anti-poaching enforcement, community programs -- have slowly pulled them back from the edge.
Keketuohai is a UNESCO Global Geopark sitting on the southern slopes of the Altai Mountains. The snow leopard population there has been growing, which is good news for conservation and bad news for tourists who think wild animals are photo props.
Days before the attack, local authorities issued a warning about increased snow leopard activity in the area. They explicitly told people not to approach the animals for photos. The warnings were ignored.
The Fake Selfie
Because the internet is the internet, a "selfie" of the woman posing with the snow leopard went viral after the attack. It was quickly debunked as a fabrication. The real story was already absurd enough without embellishment.
The snow leopard was later captured by authorities after it killed 35 sheep in the area. It was confirmed to be the same animal.
The Takeaway
Conservation saved the snow leopard. Tourism infrastructure brought humans into its habitat. A woman decided a selfie was worth more than keeping her face. She survived. The leopard got captured. Nobody won.