Struggle

How many ounces in the world? 

A strange question, I know, and you'll  struggle  to answer accurately, even when I throw out a couple of clues:  

1) It's not a big number, certainly not the long string of digits you might have been imagining.

2) It might be more helpful if I tell you the ounce is an alternative name for the snow leopard, that beautiful and endangered creature that clings on to life in the mountainous terrain of a dozen central Asia countries. Take a minute to admire the beast below - especially that thick tail - and hazard a guess. How many ounces in the world?

the ounce, aka snow leopard

At a conservative estimate, there may be as few as 3,900 living in the wild. Even the most optimistic figure quoted is only around the 7,000 mark. The struggle for the conservationists is to predict an accurate number, because these 'ghosts of the mountains' are elusive and their territories are vast and not easily accessible. They are on the WWF highly vulnerable list of endangered species. There are 600 worldwide in zoos as part of a concerted breeding and conservation initiative, though COVID has caused several of those animals to die.  

The struggle for these large cats in the wild is just to survive as they come under increasing threat from climate change, intensive farming practices and poachers. Only the last of those three is legislated against and yet despite that, several hundred (250-450) snow leopards are killed each year for their fur, skin and teeth. However, in the long run it is the double threat from global warming and changing land use to feed the expanding human population that is likely to cause the greatest decline in ounce numbers, maybe a 30% reduction by mid-century. 

I'd love to give one a home, but think of the vet's bills (and the furniture)! Fortunately, the WWF has initiated a sponsorship scheme: adopt-a-snow-leopard aimed at generating revenue to help with the breeding and conservation efforts.

My favourite facts about ounces/snow leopards: they are more closely related to tigers than to leopards; their eyes are a brilliant blue; they can't growl or roar but they can hiss (like any domestic moggy); the pads of their feet act like snowshoes; their fur is about five inches thick; those amazingly long tails also serve duty as scarves; they have the most powerful leap - up to six times their own body length.

a pouncing ounce

If you've ever seen any natural world documentary film footage of these wonderful creatures, you might, like me, consider the ounce, or snow leopard, to be poetry in motion, but I thought I'd add a few words anyway. Consider them sub-titles....

Last Pounce For The Ounce?

Elegant and elusive, its flailing tail hanging

like a giant catkin in the icy breeze at dawn,

does the ounce ever wonder why it was born, 

or why its lonely life gets harder by the year?

Its kingdom, receding with the snowline, is

becoming bald. It dreams of blue sheep but

such meat is rare now. And although it will

seasonally spray its scent to attract a mate,

a pungent aroma like a thousand geraniums

flowering on barren rock, it cannot guarantee

to pair. Wary of cameras and guns, our ounce

can still muster a phenomenal pounce to kill

the occasional goat or hare, even bird or vole

but on the whole its joy in living drains away.

You wouldn't elect to get reincarnated as one 

for instance, not here, not today, not anymore.

Thanks for reading, S ;-)