First Confirmed Record of Common Leopard Panthera pardus from Hemis National Park, Ladakh, India

In this paper, we present new findings from a camera trap survey conducted across the Trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh, in northern India. This camera trapping is part of an ongoing project to document the biodiversity of the landscape, with a particular focus on the abundance and density of major faunal species. During the survey, a Common Leopard Panthera pardus was photographed by two different camera traps over a span of 31 days in November and December 2018. Here, we share a selection of these images, alongside descriptions of the habitat, weather conditions, and other relevant data, to explore various aspects of the presence of a Common Leopard in the cold desert region of Ladakh, where the Snow Leopard Panthera uncia is typically the apex predator.