My inspiration for “Phantom” is IWCN’s Herder Snow Leopard project promoting coexistence with these magnificent cats in Nepal.

Snow leopards have evolved to live in some of Earth’s harshest conditions. Their thick white-gray coat with large black rosettes blends perfectly with Asia’s steep, rocky mountains. This natural camouflage, rendering them almost invisible in their surroundings, earns them the moniker “ghost of the mountains”. Illegal wildlife trade, retaliatory killing, habitat fragmentation, and climate crisis are a few reasons that this magnificent cat is under threat. As a top predator, they are a health gauge of their high-altitude habitat and an important indicator of climate change impacts on mountain environments. The success of countless species depends on snow leopards.