A viral picture shared by Indian Forest Service Officer Ramesh Pandey hides the aptly dubbed Phantom Cat. This Snow Leopard is camouflaged perfectly amongst the rocky terrain capped in snow, and the tweet prompts netzines to try and spot it.
Snow leopards are notoriously difficult to spot, and it is still rarer to capture this secretive mammal on camera successfully.
He goes on to call the feline in the picture the “ghost of the mountains” for its ability to blend seamlessly in its surroundings, as if not there. He then goes on to give credit to Ryan Cragun, who hails from America’s Utah, for the image he had originally captured.
At the first glance, it is almost impossible to tell that the wildcat is even in the picture.
What followed next in this pictorial challenge was people claiming to spend minutes at length, zooming in and out of the image, and yet, many still not being able to tell where the phantom cat was.
There were a few who may have gotten a glimpse of the elusive beast.
Some even believe there are two leopards in the shot
Still, some just edited one in or gave him a challenge of their own
Here is an image of a snow leopard captured by India’s ‘Snow Leopard man’, Ismail Shariff, who calls the animal a shy one and requiring a very trained eye to track and capture.
The image just goes to show how well the animal can simply fuse into its surroundings. No wonder the image is taking the internet by storm. Who does not love a challenge?
