File photo shows a snow leopard in a forest in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. A pilot snow leopard protection project was launched Thursday in the eastern Tianshan mountains, a major habitat of the species in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The memorandum of cooperation was signed between the Beijing office of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the local forest and wildlife administration. The snow leopard is a Class-A protected animal in China and the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies it as vulnerable. (Xinhua)