Snow Leopard Captured in Video by Group of Skiers in Gulmarg

Video has emerged showing a group of five skiers encountering an endangered snow leopard in the skiing destination of Gulmarg, in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir. Owen Lansburry, an Australian on holiday captured the moment.

"Ok, so the story is we skied our first powder line and the guide in yellow almost ran over the leopard."

“I stopped just as it huddled in the snow, where it stayed for about a minute checking us out.”

"It then let out a solid roar and bounded away down the slope towards Dave, but scooted off into the forest, where we think it probably had a kill stashed. Pretty amazing experience!” He said about this encounter on a facebook page.

Found in 12 different countries in central Asia, snow leopard numbers have declined by at least 20 per cent in the last 16 years due to factors including poaching and a loss of habitat, the WWF say.

American guide Mr Marchi said the group were “excited and nervous” during the encounter. A wildlife official said it may have just been a normal leopard the group spotted.