The tail of the snow leopard serves an important purpose in their survival and day to day life. They almost never drag their tails on the ground. The tail itself makes up roughly 70% of their body length, making that ratio one of the longest in the cat family, and with good purpose. It serves to help the snow leopard keep their balance especially during their hunts as it needs to maintain control and balance during its leaps, as its primary function. When living in such a harsh environment such as the mountain slopes of the himalayas, falls are not uncommon, this is where the tail comes into play. The tail helps them keep balance even during falls and enables them to find footing again. The thick coat around the tail makes for muffs to help the snow leopard stay warm when it wraps itself up with its tail, like a small scarf, helping them regulate their body temperature. In warmer temperatures they would lay on the ground while in winter and colder temperatures, they would wrap themselves up. The tail of this white feline also serves to send signals during social encounters as well. For other purposes, the snow leopard also presents with their tails erected, similar to other felines. An interesting event that the snow leopard performs with their tail is what Ino Riefer (1984) calls the "social tails contact" in which two snow leopards are within vicinity of each other but have no physical contact except for only their tails. In this case, the snow leopards would be laying down and be touching one another with their tails, oftentimes on one another's body parts, and sometimes the tails are crossed. Riefer believes this behavior to be related to how the snow leopards initially use their tails during the time of presenting. Snow leopards are rarely seen with bodily contact with one another, except with their tails like in this scenario, which sets them apart from other felines