In a first, images of snow leopards were captured through infrared cameras at two different locations in southwest China's Yunnan province, Beijing-based Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday.
The records that confirmed the presence of this endangered species in the province were made on February 17 and 19 this year, the provincial Bureau of Forestry and Grassland said.
According to Jiang Xuelong, a researcher at the Kunming Institute of Zoology, the species had not been photographed in the wild in Yunnan for many years due to the high-altitude distribution of snow leopards and the lack of systematic surveys, leading to uncertainty about their presence in the province.
"Recent sightings in northwestern Yunnan not only confirm the presence of the species in the province, but also represent one of the southernmost distribution records within China," Xinhua quoted the researcher as saying.
Known as the "king of the snow mountains", the snow leopard is under first-class national protection in China and is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.