March marked the beginning of the spring season in Mongolia, and we are proud to welcome snow leopard expert Orjan back to our base camp in the South Gobi. We are looking forward to collaring more snow leopards in the month of April, but here is what our currently collared cats have been up too. …
Tag: Khavar
A Journey Through The Badlands
During the week of May 19, 2011, the young snow leopard Zaraa journeyed from our study area in the Tost Mountain region, 45 km. (~27 miles) north, across the Toson Bumba Mountain chain and all the way to another nearby chain called the Nemegt Mountains. What makes this northern trek so interesting is not the …
Follow the Cats: Aztai Returns from the Dead
The past several weeks have had many of our scientists on their toes. Just a few weeks after Zara ventured into the “badlands,” it was Aztai’s turn. After taking off from his home range on what seemed like one of his usual forays, he spent two days around a hillock right in the middle of …
Follow the Cats Update: Zaraa Enters the Badlands
(Map Courtesy of SLT/Panthera) We are happy to announce that the collars worn by Aztai, Khavar and Zaraa continue to work fabulously, uploading up to 80% of the scheduled locations; those of Shonkhor, Tsagaan, Saikhan and Devekh seem to be under-performing. The good news is that Orjan will be returning to the field shortly (he …
Newly Collared Snow Leopard Officially Named "Khavar"
In the evening of April 25th, we placed a GPS collar on a male snow leopard who has been officially named “Khavar.” Khavar means Spring or Renewal in Mongolian and refers to the important time of year for herders when grass starts coming up and lambs are born. The name was chosen by long-time Trust …
GPS Study: Aztai has guests in his home range
Aztai (green) continues to avidly patrol the core of his home range. In the last two weeks, we were able to fit Aztai with a new collar, and it appears that he made a kill on April 24th. With so many new male recruits hovering around his territory, he seems to be very busy marking …
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 …