Elusive snow leopards caught on camera

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KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- A remote camera in the mountains of Afghanistan has captured a rare photograph of a snow leopard mother and her cub, a U.S. wildlife conservation group says.

Photographs of the elusive animals are hard to come by, the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York said, so a picture of both a mother and her cub is all the more special.

The image of the two animals, snapped on a craggy peak in Afghanistan's Sarkund Valley, is the first such photo obtained since the WCS began work in the region, the group said in a release Friday.

The WCS has been conserving wildlife in Afghanistan since 2006 with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Snow leopards are native to South and Central Asia and live in rocky mountain ranges between 9,800 and 18,000 feet.