Leopard to Sanskrit ("snake", "tiger" or "panther"), and probably derives from a Mediterranean language, such as Egyptian. The name was first used in the 13th century. Other vernacular names for the leopard include graupanther, panther and several regional names such as "tendwa" in India. The term "black panther" refers to leopards with melanistic genes. A term for the leopard used in Old English and later, but now very uncommon, is "pard". The scientific name of the leopard is "Panthera pardus". The generic name "Panthera" derives from Latin via Greek πάνθηρ ("pánthēr"). The term "panther", whose first recorded use dates back to
The Snow Leopard The Snow Leopard The Snow Leopard is a 1978 book by Peter Matthiessen. It is an account of his two-month search for the snow leopard with naturalist George Schaller in the Dolpo region on the Tibetan Plateau in the Himalayas. The book recounts the journey of Matthiessen and Schaller in 1973 to Shey Gompa in the inner Dolpo region of Nepal. Schaller's original objective was to compare the mating habits of the Himalayan blue sheep (the bharal) with those of the common sheep of the USA, while for Matthiessen the trip was more of a spiritual exploration. Another aim was