At dawn, in winter, a snow leopard moves along a ridge above Kibber, in Spiti Valley, India. It picks its way across the rock the way it always has, unhurried, indifferent to the village below. Watching from the village is Tanzin Chhoyi. “I have seen the cat many times before,” she says, “but the enchantment of such a majestic creature living among us never dies down.”
Seven snow leopards. Seven stories unfolding across the mountains of Mongolia. GPS collaring gives our researchers a rare window into the lives of these elusive cats, revealing how they use habitat, raise their young, and interact with each other and their prey. That knowledge directly shapes our conservation strategies to protect them. Here’s what they’ve been up to lately.
Spring field season is underway in Mongolia’s Tost Mountains, and our research team is as busy as ever. They’ve collared two new snow leopards, the ibex are still elusive and a mystery two years in the making has been solved. Read Dr. Örjan Johansson’s dispatches from base camp below.
In one of Mongolia’s most spectacular landscapes, a vulnerable species is thriving. But for how long depends on decisions being made right now. In September 2025, a team of researchers and rangers set out across the vast expanse of the South Gobi to count goitered gazelles. The mission had two goals: to gather reliable data on gazelle populations and to train local rangers in modern survey techniques.
What have the collared individuals been up to since we last saw them? We’re currently tracking seven GPS-collared cats and one ibex roaming Mongolia’s Tost Mountains. They are part of our long-term monitoring program, which has followed 45 individual snow leopards across generations since 2009, giving us unique insights into the lives of these endangered predators and their prey.
In the vast, arid landscapes of southern Mongolia, the delicate balance between nature and human survival is shifting. New research highlights how climate change and different land uses affect the Gobi’s life-sustaining ecosystem services—and how the people living there perceive these growing threats.
In the high mountains of Mongolia’s Tost Nature Reserve, our researchers have been tracking snow leopards through one of the most demanding periods of their lives: the weeks before and after females give birth. What they discovered reveals remarkable maternal behaviors and preparation.
Right now, in the remote peaks of Mongolia, cameras are quietly documenting moments most people will never witness: wild snow leopards roaming through their mountain kingdoms. Each image—triggered by motion as a cat passes by—tells part of a larger story about survival, behavior and what it takes to protect one of Earth’s most elusive big cats.
After nearly two decades without a national-scale gathering, Mongolia’s snow leopard community came together recently to address an urgent reality: the threats facing these cats have fundamentally changed, and so must the response.
In the mountains of Tost, Mongolia, every snow leopard mother faces the same ultimate challenge: keeping her cubs alive. Our Senior Scientist, Dr. Örjan Johansson shares how two snow leopard mothers with new litters have chosen remarkably different strategies to ensure their cubs’ survival.
