Meet the Snow Leopards You’re Helping Us Protect

These rare glimpses into their hidden world provide our researchers with crucial data about snow leopard population dynamics, reproductive biology, social behaviors and apparent survival rates that would be very difficult to gather any other way.

Our team members have once again sifted through thousands of camera trap images from Mongolia’s Tost Tosonbumba Nature Reserve in 2023. This protected area within the Gobi Desert supports a thriving population of snow leopards that our research team has studied for sixteen years.

Every image adds to our understanding of how these endangered cats interact with each other, their environment and the people who live alongside them, helping us develop more effective conservation strategies to protect them, not just in Mongolia but across their entire range.

Each year, our teams install 180 camera traps across more than 7,000 km² of snow leopard habitat in Mongolia’s Tost Nature Reserve and surrounding mountains, rotating the cameras between study areas every two to three months. In late 2023, a total of 43 camera traps were set up by the community rangers in Tost Nature Reserve, where we surveyed an area of about 1,500 km².

• Tost community rangers placed cameras near snow leopard scrapes along ridgelines, saddles, and valleys to maximize the snow leopard ‘capture’ rate. 
• After collecting the data cards, our team members went through thousands of photos and sorted the snow leopards from the other animals. Then, they began the painstaking work of identifying the snow leopards based on pelt patterns and photos from previous years.

Initial Observations

• Snow leopards were photographed on 37 out of 43 camera traps.
• We observed 19 adult snow leopards from previous years, three new adult snow leopards not seen in previous years and five potentially new adults, transients, or subadult snow leopards. The total number of adult cats encountered in 2023 was at least 22 and may have been as many as 27 adult snow leopards. This indicates a stable population from previous years.

New adult cats in 2023

Batbayar, F17, and M22 (M22 was collared in the fall of 2023 and F17 in the spring of 2024)

• Our cameras captured four females with young (first-year) cubs in 2023. F10 with two cubs, F11 with one cub, F12 with three cubs, and Nandu with three cubs. 
• Five females were accompanied by second-year cubs in 2023 (i.e., cubs born in 2022): Antoine with two cubs, Clown with two cubs, Presnel with two cubs, Zaya with one cub, and one unknown female with one cub. 
• This means that 17 snow leopard cubs are growing up in Tost! 😊

Established females

The females from previous years were observed in more or less the same areas as in earlier years (see Figure 2 below).

Antoine resides in western Tost and is Anu’s daughter from 2015. Antoine had two cubs in 2022 that were still with her in 2023. That was Antoine’s second litter. 

Clown inhabits South-Eastern Tost and has been with us since 2019, when she was encountered as an adult. Clown was seen with two second-year cubs in 2023. That was her second litter that we know of. 

F10 (Khuurhun Ach) is a supermom who we’ve monitored since 2014 when she was first observed as an adult. F10 gave birth to two cubs in 2023, her fifth litter in Tost! We don’t know F10’s exact age, but we do know that she was at least 12 years old in 2023. She gave birth in 2014, and since snow leopard females do not reproduce until they are at least three years old, we can infer that she was born in 2011 or earlier.

F11 resides in South-Central Tost and is Anu’s daughter from 2017. F11 was seen with one young cub in 2023. This is the first successful litter we’ve documented from her. Given that she’s six years old – older than typical first-time mothers in Tost, who usually reproduce at 3-4 years – she may have had previous failed attempts.

F12 (Willian) inhabits South-Central Tost and is Anu’s daughter from 2015. F12 gave birth to three cubs in 2023. That was her third litter. 

F17 (Altai) is new to our study. She was collared in the spring of 2024 and appears to be relatively young, so she may not be settled in a home range yet. However, she is spending time in what used to be Agnes’ and Dagina’s range.

Nandu has been monitored since 2021 but was mistakenly thought to be two different cats. This year, we were able to link these “two” cats into one. Previously, we had images showing only one side of each cat, which contributed to the misidentification. Nandu gave birth to three cubs in 2023. This is her first litter known to us. 

Presnel is Dagina’s daughter, born in 2014, and is quite well known to us. She had three cubs in 2022 that were still with her in 2023. Presnel and her cubs are world-famous for their appearance in the sunset sequence at the end of the Planet Earth 3 Extremes episode (filmed in the fall of 2022). 

Zaya resides in South-Eastern Tost and has been monitored since 2018. She was seen with two second-year cubs in 2023. Originally, she was observed with only one young cub in 2022, but we must have missed the other cub during the survey. These cubs are Zaya’s second litter that we know of. 

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Established males

The males from previous years were encountered in more or less the same areas that they were observed in previous years (see Figure 3 below). It’s interesting to note that there were a lot of males in Southcentral Tost, which could possibly explain why M21 left the area in late fall of 2023 and M20 was killed by another snow leopard in spring of 2024.

Bugs inhabits western Tost (in Tosonbumba and the area to the southwest). He is Dagina’s son from 2019 and appears to be settling in his natal area, which is a bit unusual as male mammals typically disperse and leave their natal areas.

Kurzawa reigns in the Northeastern part of Tost. He was first seen in 2015 as an adult. After many years of being “one of the most photographed cats in Tost” Kurzawa is now considered relatively old for a wild snow leopard (at least 11 years in 2023). 

M15 (the Dude) The infamous Dude is the heaviest wild snow leopard that has ever been weighed. He was first seen in 2018 as an adult and had a reputation for destroying cameras in those days. We estimate he is around ten years old now, as he was already an experienced cat with quite a few facial scars when we first collared him in 2018.

M18 (Namar) resides in Southeastern Tost. We first encountered him in 2019 as an adult when he was collared. 

M20 (Suul 3)  Nicknamed Digger because he was observed digging for water on two occasions. To our knowledge, this behavior has not been reported in large cats or other carnivores. You can read our recent paper detailing this interesting behavior here.  M20 resided in southcentral Tost where he was first observed in 2020 as an adult. Unfortunately, he was killed in the spring of 2024, likely during an aggressive encounter with another snow leopard. 

M21 (Sym) was first documented on our camera traps in 2019 as an adult. Although he is a large cat, 2023 proved to be a challenging year for him. He lost an eye in the spring and subsequently appeared to be displaced from the area he had occupied for about four years. In recent years, there have been several male cats in south-central Tost, including M20, M21, Nomadic, and Rando. This likely led to territorial conflicts and increased competition for space.

M22 resided in Northwestern Tost and was new to us when we collared him in the fall of 2023. He appeared to be relatively young and may not have settled in a territory yet. Unfortunately, M22 died in the spring of 2024 from unknown causes. 

M23 (Salkhi) lives in Southeastern Tost and was first observed on our cameras in 2021 as an adult. He was collared in the spring of 2024. At that time, our team suspected he might have taken over M20’s territory, but it was still too early to confirm. He also had some wounds that likely resulted from territorial disputes with other males.

Nomadic now resides in South-Central Tost and has appeared on our cameras since 2021. He was originally considered a non-resident but is a  resident cat now.

Rando now lives in South-Central Tost. But he was first photographed in the nearby Noyon area in January 2021. You may remember our camera traps revealed that Rando traveled 86 kilometers as the crow flies between January and May, crossing the relatively flat desert steppe between the two mountainous regions to get to Tost. He is now considered a resident snow leopard. 

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Established cats of unknown sex

Batbayar is a new cat to us who resides in North-Central Tost. We suspect that Batbayar is a male (as the private parts are hinted at in one of the photos).

Guierro cub 1 from 2020 is just starting to become a resident cat. Snow leopards tend to settle into a home range at about 3-4 years old. 

Guierro cub 2 from 2020: Like its sibling, this cat is just starting to become a resident. We will hopefully learn more about both of them as time goes on. 

Cats Off Camera
Two resident adult cats were not seen on camera last year: Akka and M14

By methodically tracking individual snow leopards through camera traps and GPS collaring we have decoded key behaviors – from hunting strategies and habitat use to breeding patterns and cub survival rates. Each year of data strengthens our ability to make informed decisions to protect both snow leopards and their fragile mountain ecosystems.

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Photos: SLCF-Mongolia, SLT

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, Idaho Falls Zoo at Tautphaus Park, Kolmarden Zoo, Korkeasaari Zoo, National Geographic Society, Nordens Ark, Play for Nature, Tierpark Berlin, The Big Cat Sanctuary/Wildlife Heritage Foundation, Tulsa Zoo, Whitley Fund for Nature, Zoo Basel, Zoo Dresden, and Zoo New England.

Special thanks to Enkhburen (Buren) Nyam, Choidogjamts “Choidog” Byambasuren, Temuulen “Temka” Ulziibadrakh, Purevjav “Pujii” Lkhagvajav, Dr. Gustaf Samelius and the Tost community rangers for all their work in implementing the camera trap research and painstakingly identifying these individual snow leopards!

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.