The Sixth Snow Leopard

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…

Yeeeeeaaaaahhhiiii!!

A female. We have a female. And it is a very pretty female too.

We fitted her with a collar very close to Camp, and since it was dark we decided to walk there instead of taking the bikes. We named the cat Suhder, which means “shadow” in Mongolian. It feels as if we have been chasing a shadow. She weighs just a little more than 30 kg, though she seemed to have an empty stomach, so she would probably have weighed a bit more if she’d had a good meal before we found her.

We are now out of collars, and so we broke camp. I am back in Base Camp again, awaiting further orders. Or collars. Either is fine.

The desert is flowering right now. Maybe not too impressive if you arrive here now, but to me, someone who has seen the desert without flowers for such a long time, it is fantastic! So many beautiful flowers in this harsh terrain. Extraordinary, just extraordinary.

2 Comments

  1. Hi, my name’s Mike and I am a huge supporter of PETA and animal conservation. There is a beatiful but endangered animal known as the snow leopard wich is in desperate need of some help. I’m working on a project to get some larger corporations to work on saving them. Apple Computers has a new program out called the Snow Leopard- I think for PR opportunities there’s a chance we could get them to help out! I’ve got a FB page- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tucson-AZ/Snow-Leopard-Conservation/127541594840. Please check it out!

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