When Sakhawat Ali spotted four snow leopards from the roof of his home near Central Karakoram National Park in northern Pakistan, he knew he was seeing something extremely rare. While people in the remote community of Hushe are familiar with these elusive predators, Ali told CNN that when he asked the elders in his community, no one had ever seen four of them at the same time.
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Ali is a gamekeeper in the area, according to CNN, and he says he’d spent two weeks tracking this group of snow leopards’ paw prints in the snow. When he finally spotted the group, it was through binoculars from his very own roof. Ali further explains that the group of four consisted of a mother snow leopard and her three cubs.
The Snow Leopard Trust suggests there could be fewer than 4,000 of these leopards left in the wild. The species’ greatest threats include poaching and habitat destruction due to mining and development.
Watch Ali’s footage of four snow leopards in Pakistan here:
See an interview with Ali here: