Weekly Cat Update: And the award for longest walk goes to….

We’re seeing a lot of movement from our radio-collared snow leopards this week. After visiting the area northwest of our research camp, the cats appear to be using a corridor to move between the Tost and Toson Bumba mountain ranges. Shonkhor has moved back to Toson Bumba to an area slightly further east than we’ve seen him venture before. Saikhan left the area in the vicinity of our research camp, made a quick pass through the corridor just prior to Shonkhor’s visit, crossed over to Toson Bumba, then crossed back to the Tost Mountains to the area where we thought he was establishing a permanent home range earlier this summer. His movements totaled 60 km (37 miles) in 14 days. But the honorary award for the most impressive movement goes to Itgel, who moved 39 km (24 miles) to the eastern edge of Toson Bumba over the past 11 days. Remember–Itgel is the snow leopard with a hurt foot. Unfortunately, we’ve had no further uplinks from Tsagaan’s collar since the single hit on August 23rd (Tsagaan’s collar has been on again off again for over a month now), so no updates on his whereabouts. Aztai continues to prowl the canyons in the vicinity of our research camp, winning the award for most predictable movements.

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