Using collar data, we’ve been searching for kills made by the two female snow leopards that gave birth this summer, F12 and F19. While doing this, we have noticed that they employed two very different parenting strategies. F12 appears to take more risks and is likely able to provide the cubs with more food, whereas F19 plays it safer, possibly providing less meat but potentially keeping her cubs more secure.
F12 and her cubs left their den on July 26th, when the cubs were almost 2 months old. She had just killed a female ibex and moved the cubs to the kill. They had a nice, protected ledge just 50 m above the kill, where they could stay hidden. This was relatively close to our Base Camp – in fact, they could see the Base Camp from the ledge.
Since then, F12 has followed this strategy: hunt and then move the cubs to the feast. When the meat runs out, she relocates the cubs a few hundred meters to another site with lots of hiding places (typically tall vegetation and steep walls with crevices and caves), often close to a water hole. She stashes the cubs here when hunting. Once she has made a kill, she goes back to the cubs and travels to the kill site with them. This has continued since late July. We think this pattern will repeat until the end of October or November, when the cubs should be big enough to travel with her more extensively.
F19 has a much more careful approach. She didn’t abandon her den until September 2nd. At that time, the cubs were almost three months old. Prior to this, we have never seen a female use a den for such a long time. It’s probably a risk-averse approach to keep them in the same safe den, instead of traveling with them and stashing them in temporary sites. But at the same time, her cubs are restricted to a diet of milk, whereas F12’s cubs likely started eating meat a month earlier.
When F19 finally left the den, she killed a big ibex male. She and the cubs fed on it for five to six days. Then she moved them to a ‘stash site’ high up on a mountain, where she kept them until September 19th (11 days total). During this time, she killed an ibex kid but didn’t bring the cubs to the kill. This pattern has repeated, where she keeps the cubs at a stash site for an extended period and only brings them to some of her kills. Perhaps they are still partly feeding on milk.
F12, now ten years old, has likely claimed the throne as the best-studied snow leopard female, a title passed down from Dagina, who inherited it from F12’s own mother, Anu. This is F12’s fourth litter; her prior three litters consisted of three, one and three cubs. We know that the single cub disappeared, but the other six cubs survived to at least 1.5 years of age. Once they disperse from their mother, it’s difficult to know their stories unless they stay in the area and show up on our camera traps or become part of our collaring program. One of her cubs, F16, is now collared and thriving.
Suffice it to say that F12 is an experienced mother. Logically, her strategy ought to be better as she can provide more food for the cubs, though perhaps she subjects them to greater risks.
F19 is only five years old. She has given birth before but has not successfully raised a litter. Perhaps losing her first litter made her extra cautious, or maybe that same strategy failed to provide enough food. We can’t know for sure. Whether this approach will succeed remains to be seen. What we can do is piece together her story from camera trap images and collar data, then apply those insights to conservation strategies that protect these cats, their habitat, and their prey.
Beyond tracking these two mothers, we also collared a beautiful new male on our recent field trip. M25 is probably around five years old and appears to have claimed the territory in the northeast part of Tost around the crater. This area was previously held by Kurzawa, who controlled it since 2018, a remarkably long time for a wild snow leopard male. He was seen on camera in the crater area and more central parts of Tost in late fall of 2024, which suggests that M25 may have started to push him out of his area then.
Recently, we’ve had some rather bad weather with heavy rains that created a waterfall above our camp. It was beautiful, except that the water was flowing towards the camp. Flash floods destroyed many of our traps and completely altered the ravines, making it hard to predict where the cats will walk.
We’ve also had some complications with a stone marten. I’d heard they can be troublemakers, climbing into cars and chewing cables, but I thought that was exaggerated. However, this guy has dug out our trap transmitters, pulling them hard enough to set off the alarm and then chewed off the cable to the antenna. Three times now we’ve been jolted awake, grabbed all our gear and scrambled off in a hurry, hoping to collar a snow leopard, only to find stone marten teeth marks. I used to really like martens. Now, I’m not so sure.
F19 recently received her Mongolian name, which is Khiimori. It means Wind Spirit or Wind Horse.
You can help snow leopard cubs in the wild by adopting your own plush cub. All adoptions fund our conservation programs.
Photo credits: SLCF-Mongolia
Acknowledgements: 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 of Nature, Environment and Tourism, the Government of Mongolia, and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences for their support.
We would also like to acknowledge: Acton Family Giving, Bioparc Zoo de Doue la Fontaine, David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, Idaho Falls Zoo at Tautphaus Park, John Ball Zoo, Kolmårdens Zoo, Korkeasaari Zoo, National Geographic Society, Nordens Ark, Parco Zoo Punta Verde, Play for Nature, Tierpark Berlin, The Big Cat Sanctuary/Wildlife Heritage Foundation, Tulsa Zoo, Whitley Fund for Nature, Zoo Basel, Zoo Dresden, Zoo New England and the many incredible partners who have supported programs like our Long-term Ecological Study and research in Mongolia since it began in 2008. We could not do this work without you.