by Matthew Cobb
To celebrate Jerry’s birthday while he’s in India, here’s a ‘spot the’ item that involves cats and India. This picture from the Indian Himalayas was taken by @devender_chauh a Range Officer in the Spiti Wildlife Division and posted on Tw*tter by @snowleopard_ncf. There are two prey species in this photo, and two snow leopards. For full marks you need to locate the animals, and name the prey species (no cheating!). The answer will go up in a couple of hours.
I see the two leopards and the two prey species (5? individuals one one species [Nilgiri Tahr?] and one of another[Himalayan Ibex?]).
Google assisted guesses at the prey species.
A Bharal (Pseudois nayaur), an Ibex (Capra sibirica hemalayanus) and two snow leopards!
Definitely see the more obvious kitteh, and I see at least 2 more kitteh-like shapes, so I expect I am being too jumpy.
Not sure how to say it briefly, but there is the argument from agency where natural selection will favor interpreting that there is a lurking predator, even if there is sometimes no predator, since the cost of being wrong that way is less than the cost of intepreting there is no lurking predator.