Thanks to hourly GPS position uploads from tracking collars, researchers can reconstruct a day in the life of a wild snow leopard in unprecedented detail. The data shows what types of terrain these cats seek to rest, observe, and hunt prey.
Category: Mongolia
Rare Footage: a Snow Leopard Family of Four
A mother and her three almost fully grown cubs visit a research camera.
Counting Ibex: Fall Prey Surveys Completed
Scientists and rangers in Mongolia conduct a comprehensive survey of ibex and argali, the snow leopard’s preferred prey species, in the Tost and Noyon mountains. The populations currently look stable and sufficiently large to sustain the area’s snow leopards.
Dagina Is Back on the Air
Dagina, an eight-year old female snow leopard we’ve known since she was a tiny cub, becomes our latest cat to be tracked with a GPS collar in the world’s most comprehensive study of wild snow leopards.
Trailblazers: Snow Leopards Cross Borders, Deserts, Rivers
Data from camera traps and GPS collars show endangered snow leopards dispersing to distant mountain ranges across stretches of deserted steppe, swimming across streams and rivers considered impossible to cross, and freely passing country borders.
A Wild Snow Leopard Encounter
A curious snow leopard decides to inspect a camera trap set up by researchers to monitor and study these endangered cats.
Turning the Tide: Mongolian Conservationists Create a Future for Snow Leopards
The snow leopard is under threat of extinction. But a local grassroots organization in Mongolia is showing a possible path toward the future for this endangered cat.
Pioneering Research Leads to PhD
Örjan Johansson’s groundbreaking work on the snow leopard’s biology and behavior has led to novel insights into the spatial needs, predation patterns, and reproduction cycle of this elusive cat. Now, after 8 years of field work, collaring 23 individual snow leopards and spending more than 1,000 nights in the Gobi Desert, this pioneering scientist has received his PhD from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
Pallas’s Cats Posing for Pictures
We’re all about the snow leopard, but that doesn’t mean we can’t occasionally celebrate other felines as well… especially if they pose for pictures for us, like these rare Pallas’s Cats in Mongolia’s Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park.
A Herder by Trade, a Conservationist by Calling
Some of the best conservationists are found among the rural communities who live side by side with the world’s endangered species. Davaa, a Mongolian herder, is such a local champion. Selected by his neighbors and friends as a community ranger, he now helps encourage sustainable practices and fosters tolerance among the community for the elusive snow leopard.