Aztai's Long Walk

We recently got an update from Koustubh, our Regional Field Biologist, about the latest trek that the wild cat Aztai made in Mongolia:

Couldn’t resist the temptation of sharing this exciting episode of Mr. Aztai and his long walk. He seems to be fond of taking these long walks almost periodically, though the frequency is a bit erratic by definition. This is perhaps the farthest he has ever been to in the past 2.5 years that we have known him for…

He went to the Northern edge of the rugged mountains… before turning around and heading almost at a trotting speed to his home range’s core. He seems to have covered more than 75 km in just about 2 days!!! He may have crossed terrain that has people, mines and is criss-crossed by roads. What is most astounding is the pace at which he traced his way back to his home range core while taking rest for just a few hours.

We know about Aztai’s movements from the GPS tracking collar he is wearing. Along with the insight into his behavior, we realize that his route possibly led him into places where people are encroaching on snow leopard habitat and there is mining activity. Find out more about the threat from mining in our Mining FAQ.