When do snow leopards hunt their prey? When do they rest? While these questions may seem tangential to conservation, a better understanding of snow leopard activity patterns can help inform our conservation efforts to protect the species and prepare for any threats on the horizon. Read on to learn more about the days and nights in the life of a snow leopard.
Örjan Johansson’s groundbreaking work on the snow leopard’s biology and behavior has led to novel insights into the spatial needs, predation patterns, and reproduction cycle of this elusive cat. Now, after 8 years of field work, collaring 23 individual snow leopards and spending more than 1,000 nights in the Gobi Desert, this pioneering scientist has received his PhD from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
Field scientist Örjan Johansson is back in the South Gobi, the site of our long-term snow leopard study. Together with his colleague Gustaf Samelius, he’s attempting to collar snow leopards and ibex this spring to allow us to track their movements. This is his field diary.
Snow Leopard Trust researcher Örjan Johansson recently published a groundbreaking study where he could show that most Protected Areas in the cats’ habitat are too small to hold viable snow leopard populations. In this article, he explains how he and his team calculated snow leopard home ranges using data from cats they tracked with GPS collars.
Less than a week ago, field scientist Örjan Johansson and his team managed to equip a new snow leopard with a GPS collar – the 20th cat we’ll be able to track in our long-term snow leopard study in Mongolia’s South Gobi. Since then, the team have struggled with snow, fog and solid ice, as …
Our autumn research season is now underway! While our team members process the images taken by motion sensing camera during the summer, field researchers are gearing up to collar more snow leopards this fall. Coordinating travel agendas and securing the required supplies and equipment consumed much of September, but thanks to everyone’s hard work, by October 1st most …
Back in the field, Orjan sends an update: The first ten days of this field session have passed. We have been working non-stop to set up camp and scout the area. Camp is located in the same site as our old Base Camp and we are hoping to collar snow leopards in the same area as where the …
Orjan has returned home to Sweden after six busy months of field work. He will return to Base Camp in October. There’s still plenty happening out there – check out the “Notes from Base Camp” section on this blog for regular updates.
Orjan is a Swedish PhD student who bought a one-way ticket to Mongolia to work at the base camp of our long-term research project. These are his adventures… The summer crew arrived in Base Camp on the evening of the 15th of June and since then, things have been busy here. The crew consists of Kim …
Orjan is a Swedish PhD student who bought a one-way ticket to Mongolia to work at the base camp of our long-term research project. These are his adventures… We were all very happy that we had caught a female. Too bad this joy turned into misery after just two days when we didn’t get any fixes …
