Mountains
Mountains, which exist on every continent and in the world’s oceans, cover about 20 percent of the earth’s surface. What’s unique about them is that even a single mountain is like a set of Russian nesting toys: one biome inside another inside another inside another. Drive up a mountain only a few thousand feet and in under an hour you’ll see grasslands or meadows at one level; thick, lush forests at another, snow-covered slopes at yet another. The temperature might be balmy on a mountaintop in Ecuador and bone-numbingly cold on a peak in Mongolia.

Many of the animals on these layered ecosystems tend to stick to their own sub-biome. The spectacled (or Andean) bear, for example, ranges through South America’s mountainous regions of tropical cloud forests, high-altitude savanna, scrublands and humid forests. The endangered snow leopard, on the other hand, wanders a harsh, craggy, remote habitat high in the mountains of Central Asia and is unlikely to be seen anywhere else – if at all.

Tremarctos ornatus is called the spectacled bear because of the pattern of white circles or semi-circles around each eye. The “spectacle” patterns differ in each animal and may extend from the cheeks to the chest. It is South America’s only bear, found in Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and western Bolivia.

While not listed as endangered, only about 2,500 spectacled bears remain in the wild, so they are protected from commercial trade by international law. Their numbers in the wild have been depleted by hunting and loss of habitat, the latter due to increased human population, agriculture and road building in the bears’ mountainous habitat.

“Spectacled bears are not strictly carnivores,” says Megan Wilson, curator of Regenstein African Journey and Carnivores. “It’s not likely you’ll see them standing in a stream fishing for salmon. They will eat insects, rodents and carrion, but they are mostly herbivorous, eating lots of roots and fruits.” Lincoln Park Zoo participates in the Spectacled Bear Species Survival Plan.

On the other side of the world is the elusive and endangered snow leopard (Panthera uncia). Between 3,500 to 7,000 remain in the mountains of Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan and several regions of the former Soviet Union. But spotting one is a rare experience. Writer Peter Matthiessen and naturalist George Schaller once spent five weeks trekking through the Himalayas hoping to spot a snow leopard but never did. “That the leopard is, that it is here, that its frosty eyes watch us from the mountains – that is enough,” Matthiessen wrote in his book The Snow Leopard.

The big cats can leap up to 30 feet and kill prey – such as wild sheep and goats – up to three times their weight. Their numbers have been reduced by humans pushing farther and farther into the leopards’ habitat in search of grazing ground for livestock. Just as devastating is poaching. Leopards are still sought for their use in traditional Asian medicine. It is now illegal to traffic in live cats, fur or body parts, but park management and law enforcement are weak.

The zoo participates in the Snow Leopard Species Survival Plan. If you want to see one at the zoo, it helps to have some of Matthiessen’s patience. The snow leopard’s grayish coat blends in with the rocks and vegetation of the outdoor habitat at the Lion House. If you don’t spot one at first, don’t immediately walk away. Scan the upper ledges of rocks, where you’ll often to see the elusive cat curled up.