In the evening of April 25th, PhD student and field researcher Orjan brought a new snow leopard into our long term collaring study. Called M8 for now, the male snow leopard weighs 34 kg and appears to be about two years old. Orjan thinks that M8 might be one of Supermom’s “cubs”, or perhaps previous …
News & Stories
New Big Cats, New Little Cats
Orjan is a Swedish PhD student who works at the base camp of our long-term research project in Mongolia. These are his adventures… It’s been a while since my last post, and a lot has happened in camp. I had some very busy days with the German film crew, and I think that they got …
Follow the Cats Update: Orjan Checks the Clusters while the Cats are on Patrol
We have had a rare fortnight with no new snow leopard collared! The law of averages seems to be catching up after so many weeks where there have been at least one–and sometimes even two–snow leopards collared within a single night. Orjan is wondering if they have figured out his strategy. The truth is that …
Mining Permits in Mongolia Threaten Snow Leopard Habitat and Local Communities
We have recently discovered that mining interests in Mongolia’s South Gobi could threaten the snow leopards we are studying. There are 92 mining permits now covering nearly all of the South Gobi’s Tost Mountains. This area is home to Aztai, Tsagaan, Supermom and dozens of other snow leopards we have come to know over the …
Snow Leopard Trust Provides Mongolia Relief Effort
As you might have heard, Mongolia is facing one of the worst winters in three decades: herders have lost an estimated 4.5 million livestock as 19 of 21 provinces were hit by extreme cold and snow. The Snow Leopard Trust has established a relief fund so that we can immediately help families through this difficult …
Attempted Snow Leopard Trade in Afghanistan
Many supporters called and wrote after reading in USA Today and TIME magazine this March a story about a hunter who captured a snow leopard in the Wakhan corridor (an important wildlife migration area that straddles the Afghanistan-Pakistan border), intending to sell the live cat to a private collector. After the hunter was turned in …
GPS Study: Following Devekh Across Mongolia's Tost Mountains
As you can see on the map, Devekh’s movements these past two weeks have been remarkable (Devekh’s positions and trajectories are represented by the blue dots and lines). He has already given us quite a lot of data points to follow! Two weeks ago Devekh was heading Southeast toward the Tost Mountains. He continued this …
Snow Leopard “Supermom” Spotted Again
Orjan is a Swedish PhD student who works at the base camp of our long-term research project in Mongolia. These are his adventures… There is still lots of snow in some parts of the mountains, particularly towards the western side. We tried to go to the area where Shonkhor lives to collect some cameras that …
Snow Leopard M7 Renamed: Say Hello to "Devekh"
The newest snow leopard to join our long-term study in Mongolia now has a new name! In February we placed a collar on a strapping young male that we were temporarily calling “M7.” As you can read in earlier posts, M7 is quite an explorer. We are proud to announce that M7 officially has a …
New Collared Cat M7 is A Fast Mover
After several weeks of only hearing from one or two cats, we have recent location uplinks from four of the five collared snow leopards. Perhaps one of the most remarkable journeys depicted by this data is that of our newest cat we call M7 (blue). He is a real mover! He was fitted with his …