Sep. 19 – After a few years with very little rain here in Southern Mongolia, that all changed. This summer received plenty of it. Tost looks nothing like when we left in May – there are green plants, herbs and flowers everywhere. It must be a huge relief for all living things.
The cameras for the annual snow leopard survey of Tost were deployed in late August. We checked the two that sit in our trapping area when we arrived and noticed a new male. He has a very distinct spot pattern on his thigh. At first, we decided to call him The Sign because of that pattern.
My thoughts often wander on the long travels here and while I was driving, I noticed all the purple flowers, thought about the rain, this new cat we’re calling The Sign and the idea that perhaps he is trying to take over The Dude’s range. (The Dude is the largest male here, or perhaps ‘the king’ of this area). I then realized that we should call the cat Prince after the musician who sang the hit song Purple Rain and briefly changed his name to a sign. So, we are calling this younger cat in the king’s realm, Prince, formerly known as The Sign. (Note: All cats get a ‘name’ when identified on camera. Because there are quite a few cats and some are just seen for a year as they are young cats passing through, these names tend to be improvised. If they end up being collared, they will get a Mongolian name.)
Tomorrow, we will go out to the crater to see if we can find Presnel’s den. She gave birth in early May and has left the den by now. But we have a fairly precise location from her collar, so hopefully, we can find it and document what kind of den she used.
Sep. 22 – We did find Presnel’s den. It is in the crater in these strange red, clay-shaped rocks (the same area where the BBC team filmed her for Planet Earth 3). We took some photos of that, too.
Today, we also practiced setting up the ibex drop net with Buren at base camp. We placed some apples under the net to lure a goat in to practice collaring and releasing from the net. It worked well. And while I don’t think the goat will ever look at an apple the same way again, it didn’t seem too bothered.
Oct. 1 – Last night, we caught a new, young male snow leopard (M24). We think he is 3.5 years old, but it’s possible that he is only 2.5. This is the cat who had been captured (on camera) twice with the distinguished ‘sign’ on his flank who we decided to temporarily call Prince. He will ultimately receive a Mongolian name.
He is not fully grown yet (the cat, not the musician, even though he wasn’t very big either). His head hasn’t reached its full width, he weighed 37.7 kg and doesn’t have any scars on his face. He hid in some bushes when we arrived and didn’t try to leave (only younger cats have behaved like that in the past). We found a small gap in the bushes allowing us to dart him. He was caught in the snare we built for the first time this past spring. So far, it has caught three cats – pretty productive. It’s a tricky place and we had planted quite a lot of bushes to steer the cats in the right direction. As the saying goes – herding cats is not easy, so this takes time. When we do catch a cat, they destroy all our nicely planted bushes, so we’ll have some gardening to do later today. But all in all, it went extremely well!
(Why do we collar snow leopards? The data provide vital insights into snow leopard ecology and inform crucial conservation efforts to protect the species.)
Oct. 2 – It’s been nice and warm here until a few days ago when temperatures dropped 20-25 degrees C. I never remember just how cold it gets on the motorbike and didn’t bring enough warm clothes for the first cold day. We are visiting M23’s clusters (sites where a collared cat has stayed for more than two hours). He resides about 1-1.5 hours east of our camp. Driving there is usually not too bad, but when heading home, you have to drive into the wind and the winds are extremely strong here.
M23’s collar sends locations to us twice weekly. When we plotted the most recent batch this morning, I realized that I had lunch about 80-100 m from M23 a couple of days ago. I didn’t know he was there at the time. I had found myself a really nice, wind-protected sunny cliff and sat there munching on some dried mango and then lay down and dozed off in the sun for a couple of minutes. Today, I went to the site where M23 had been during my lunch break and found the remains of an ibex. He was probably also having lunch at the same time I was.
My lunch site was in full view for him, so he must have wondered what I was doing but didn’t bother to move. It’s a good thing that snow leopards are not overly aggressive. Fieldwork would be far less fun if you run the risk of having your intended lunch break end up with you being the lunch.
I often wonder how many times I have been this close to them without knowing about it. I’m pretty sure that at least the older cats have seen us many times and must recognize me and Gustaf (clothes, motorbikes, etc).
Oct. 6 – We collared a 2.5 year-old female ibex two days ago. Interestingly, she stepped in one of the snow leopard snares. We fitted the collar but didn’t do anything more than that other than check her legs carefully. We made sure all joints, bones, etc, were ok, couldn’t even find a scratch on her. Then she disappeared in a flash. I was sitting in front of her and there was an ibex-sized gap between Gustaf and me. For a split second, this gap was filled with an ibex, and then she was gone.
I need to remember not to sit in front of them next time. They could accidentally run you over. Overall, it went very well. We observed her as she climbed a steep slope later and as far as we could tell, she moved as normal.
Oct. 7 – M24 appears to use The Dude’s territory, which is a risky move if the Dude is still around. Only time will tell if that’s a good idea or not. We collared him on Oct 1. We will pack up camp on Oct 14, so there’s less than a week left for collaring. There hasn’t been much activity in the area lately. We missed one cat when it rained and later got cold. The traps were frozen and this cat had the indecency to make scrapes on top of two of them. I don’t have very high hopes that we will catch anything more on this trip, but you never know.
Oct. 8 – Obviously, I was wrong because we collared F12 this evening! She was born in 2015 to Anu who we have followed since she was a one-year-old. We’ve followed F12 and her sisters (Antoine and F11) via camera trap since they were six months old. Antoine resides to the east of us. F12 was first collared in 2018 but that collar failed after 1.5 months. We collared her a second time in 2022.
F12 has three cubs, born on May 17, 2023. All three were hovering around us during the entire collaring. They must have crossed the ravine we were sitting in several times because they would pop up here and there. The closest one was 10-12 meters away, peeking over a rock. Snow leopards seem to trust that they are invisible in darkness and these guys wanted to see what was happening to mom. A few times they called for her, a rather high-pitched short call. It’s very windy and quite cold tonight. It took some time for F12 to come around, so we folded the windbag over her and put a jacket on top and a soft bottle with warm water inside to keep her warm. It felt as if the cubs came closer when they couldn’t see mom anymore. Not sure if that is true or just a coincidence but we opened the bag and put our lights on her so they could see she was still there.
It is quite humbling to have three snow leopards hovering around you this close. And while we are always fully focused and devoted to the task in a capture, I must say that it adds some pressure to handle a female when her three cubs are watching this closely. Fortunately, it all went smoothly.
After all these years, this may have been my favorite snow leopard encounter. These cubs are pretty big, they should weigh 50-60 pounds now and even so, they are shy. Several times when I turned around, there would be a snow leopard sitting in front of me, and as soon as the light from my headtorch lit it up, it would look away.
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UPDATE: M24 received his Mongolian name and will now be called Angarag (which means Mars).
Photos: SLCF and Snow Leopard Trust
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 of Nature, Environment and Tourism, the Government of Mongolia, and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences for their support.
We would also like to acknowledge:
National Geographic Society, Acton Family Giving, Bioparc Zoo de Doue la Fontaine, David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, Idaho Falls Zoo at Tautphaus Park, John Ball Zoo, Kolmårdens Zoo, Korkeasaari Zoo, Nordens Ark, Parco Zoo Punta Verde, Play for Nature, Tierpark Berlin, The Big Cat Sanctuary/Wildlife Heritage Foundation, Tulsa Zoo, Whitley Fund for Nature, Zoo Basel, Zoo Dresden, Zoo New England and the many incredible partners who have supported programs like our Long-term Ecological Study and research in Mongolia since it began in 2008. We could not do this work without you.
Such a fascinating report from on site. To work with and handle the snow leopards must be such a responsibility and it is obvious the cats are treated with respect and the reverence their presence demands. Reading your detailed reports brings SLT supporters along with you, thank you.