Fact-Check: Viral photo shows little Pakistani girl sitting beside snow leopard!

A picture showing a little Pakistani girl sitting by a snow leopard went viral on social media recently. Snow-covered mountains are also showing in the background of this picture.

According to the social media posts, the little girl’s name is Gulmina and the snow leopard is said be her pet. The social media posts suggest the girl belongs to the Shamshaal area of Gilgit-Baltistan. The girl adopted this snow leopard when it was very young, mistaking it as a wild cat. But she realized later that it was a snow leopard and not a wild cat. This snow leopard later disappeared into mountains and it lives there, but it comes back occasionally to see Gulmina.

Initially, this picture was posted on a Facebook page named 'Baltistan' and it went viral immediately. However, an Indian media outlet ran a Fact-Check and discovered that this picture was not real; it was generated through artificial intelligence.

The investigation found that even before ‘Baltistan’, an Instagram account named Barakk had posted this picture. This Instagram page titled the picture as “Shireen and her wild friend”. Responding to a comment in the comments section, the owner of this Instagram account said this picture was generated through artificial intelligence.