Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/10/snow-leopard-cub-startles-moth.html
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Thank you. I will be watching this for the rest of the day!
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I know, right!
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I’m startled right now.
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I’m not sure if I wanna stop watching. #WarmFuzziesAddiction
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I like how cub immediately starts to grovel in exactly the same way I did as a kid when I realized I may have gone slightly over the line.
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I love a goofy kid…they drive you crazy but they’re great fun to have around when you’re up in the air.
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I’m trying to figure out which muscles you use to go from prone to airborne with all limbs out n an eighth of a second.
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They are merely practicing their synchronized jumping routine for the next animal Olympics. My bet is on the impala in that discipline, although leopards can be sore losers so the impalas may decide to throw the game.
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I was going to say they are rehearsing for the “synchronised startling” heats at the next Olympics, now it has replaced “synchronised swinmming”. You kind of beat me to it.
Apropos - I recently saw there is a ‘synchronised swimming - solo’ category. WTF?
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Cat muscles.
Every other month or so one of my cats will find something new, or something which strikes them as odd, and I’ll watch them approach it gingerly, sniffing curiously. Then, if I happen to be in just the right location where I can reach out without them noticing me, and jiggle the item a little bit, I’m rewarded with kitty flight. They look for all the world like they have not moved a muscle, yet move first directly upwards, then float gently backwards out of the room.
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I think if it had been something scary her tail would have kept helicoptering and she would have just floated, head down, out of the enclosure.
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I wanna scritch the floof.
I know I’d probably lose a hand, but I wanna scritch it nonetheless.
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Snow leopards, as sneps as they’re sometimes called, are seriously cute critters. 
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Every zoo is a petting zoo if you’re brave enough.
They do look so darned fuzzy though, don’t they?
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start your engines
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Less than a second to go from lounging, to startled, to airborne, and then cuddly again.
A little google follow up found this… https://io9.gizmodo.com/these-images-show-just-how-differently-cats-and-humans-1445728239
One side effect of having eyes with a faster refresh is that cats are unable to see slow moving objects that humans can see.
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Last time I had a cat kitten combo in my house the little one spent most of its time stalking the big one, pouncing, panicking mid pounce and doing one of those jumpy things, then running away in terror while the older one just ignored it.
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That is incredibly cute and funny; especially because house cats do the started jump thing, too. Sometimes, for no reason at all - it’s hilarious to watch.
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