Using GPS collar data, our team investigated the locations of GPS “clusters” where our collared cats spent extended time, often indicating a kill site or den. This year, for the first time, we analyzed clusters from F12 and F19, two females with young cubs about three months old. Our team backtracked through older GPS data to examine their behavior in the weeks around the time of birth.
What emerged was striking: both females engaged in intensive feeding before entering their dens to give birth, then went weeks without killing large prey. F12 consumed two foals in the ten days before denning. F19 ate one ibex and two goats in her final two weeks before giving birth. To put this in perspective, snow leopards typically hunt one large prey animal every eight to nine days. These pre-birth feeding sessions seemed to be deliberate—as if the mothers were consciously stockpiling energy.
After giving birth, both females went for an extended period without killing large prey. F12 killed her first large prey 14 days after giving birth. F19 waited even longer—27 days.
During this time, the mothers remained close to their dens, nursing and protecting their vulnerable newborns. The energy reserves built up during those pre-birth feasts sustained them through this critical period when leaving the cubs to go on longer hunting trips would expose them to significant risks.
The data revealed another intriguing pattern: prey choice changed after birth. Before denning, both females killed a mix of wild prey and livestock. After giving birth, they hunted almost exclusively wild ibex.
Although the sample size is very limited, this possible shift may be related to risk assessment. Hunting livestock often brings cats closer to human settlements, perhaps an acceptable risk when a female is alone, but with potentially much higher costs when she has vulnerable cubs to protect. Our previous research has suggested that females with cubs prey on livestock less frequently, likely for this reason.
This observation also connects to the different maternal strategies we’ve documented in F12 and F19. F12, an experienced ten-year-old mother, appears more willing to take calculated risks to provide food for her cubs. F19, younger and less experienced, tends toward more cautious approaches. Both strategies reflect the same underlying priority: keeping cubs alive in a harsh landscape.
Once the cubs were old enough to leave the den, both mothers regularly stashed them near waterholes. Since the cubs were old enough to eat meat by this point, the proximity to water wasn’t about milk production. Instead, it likely reflects the broader importance of water sources in this arid mountain environment—places where shade, shelter and resources naturally concentrate.
Tracking these females closely revealed just how constrained their movements became with young cubs. They travel far less than other snow leopards, their territories shrinking to accommodate the needs of offspring too small to follow them on longer journeys.
The intensive preparation before birth, the extended fasting period after, the strategic shift in prey choice, the careful choice of cub-stashing sites—all of it underscores the extraordinary energy, planning and sacrifice motherhood demands.
Photo credits: SLCF-Mongolia
Acknowledgments: This Long-Term Ecological Study is in collaboration with Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation in Mongolia and Snow Leopard Trust with special thanks to the Ministry for Environment and Green Development, the Government of Mongolia, and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences for their support.
SLT would also like to acknowledge: Acton Family Giving, Bioparc Zoo de Doue la Fontaine, David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, Dublin Zoo, Idaho Falls Zoo at Tautphaus Park, John Ball Zoo, Kolmarden Zoo, Korkeasaari Zoo, Knopf Family Foundation, National Geographic Society, Nordens Ark, Parco Zoo Punta Verde, Play for Nature, Regina Bauer Frankenberg Foundation, Tierpark Berlin, The Big Cat Sanctuary/Wildlife Heritage Foundation, Tulsa Zoo, Whitley Fund for Nature, Zoo Basel, Zoo Boise, Zoo Dresden, and Zoo New England.
Thank you to all the many committed partners who have supported our research in Mongolia along with our Long-term Ecological Study since it began in 2008. We could not do this work without you.