The New Cats
F21(yellow on the map below) has been a familiar face on our camera traps every year since 2021. Our team was able to GPS-collar her for the first time a few weeks ago. We know she had cubs in 2024, and the second new addition to our study is her son!
M26 (blue) has already separated from his mother, F21, and is starting to explore beyond Tost, which is typical behavior for young males, who tend to disperse widely.
M24/Angarag (green) may be the most intriguing cat right now. At five years old, he is fully grown. Yet he is small for an adult male, just slightly larger than an average female. He roams widely across the territories of three females, F12, F19, and F21, while appearing to avoid the main travel routes, possibly to stay out of confrontations with larger males. He met with F19 twice last summer and once this spring, feeding from the same kills with her occasionally. He also stayed with F12 earlier this spring, during mating season, even though she has cubs and isn’t likely to mate. His collar was due to drop off this summer, but our team was able to re-collar him at the end of May, so we can continue to track his movements closely.
F12/Willian (red) continues to move through her traditional area between the west and mid valley. Born in 2015 to Anu, she is part of one of the founding family lines of this study. This is her 3rd time wearing a collar, making her the most studied snow leopard in the world. She gave birth to her fourth litter (2 cubs) in early June 2025. Her collar recently dropped off as programmed. We’ll continue to follow her on our camera traps.
F16 / Oluula (orange) is F12’s daughter, born in 2023. She is nearly three years old and still traveling widely, which is typical behavior for a young cat trying to establish a territory.
F19 (purple), born in 2020, continues to use the same eastern area of Tost she has occupied since we first collared her. She and her mother, Guerreiro, represent the third family line in our study, spanning at least three generations. F19 gave birth to three cubs of her own in the summer of 2025.
M25 (brown) is active in the northeast part of Tost, in the area previously used by M19 (Kurzawa). Kurzawa began ranging more widely in 2025, suggesting he may have been displaced.
F20/Gunj (pink) is currently about 50 km north of Tost in the Nemegt Mountains, where she traveled very shortly after being collared in May 2025. She will be three years old soon. We haven’t been able to link her to any cubs from our camera traps, so her origins remain unknown. We don’t know whether she came from Nemegt originally and made a brief visit to Tost, or whether she came from Tost and has now settled in Nemegt.
These seven GPS-collared snow leopards are part of the latest chapter in our ongoing research, which has now tracked 47 individual cats over the years. Together, their stories are building a body of knowledge that guides everything we do to protect snow leopards and the landscapes they depend on.
NOTE: Why we collar cats
Tracking snow leopards reveals crucial information that we couldn’t learn any other way. The collars are programmed to detach after about 20 months. During that time, they provide valuable data that directly informs our conservation strategies to protect this endangered species.
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Photo credits: Joseph Bump and SLCF-Mongolia
Acknowledgments: 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 for Environment and Green Development, the Government of Mongolia, and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences for their support.
SLT would also like to acknowledge: Bioparc Zoo de Doue la Fontaine, David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, Dublin Zoo, Idaho Falls Zoo at Tautphaus Park, John Ball Zoo, Kolmarden Zoo, Korkeasaari Zoo, Knopf Family Foundation, National Geographic Society, Nordens Ark, Parco Zoo Punta Verde, Play for Nature, Regina Bauer Frankenberg Foundation, Tierpark Berlin, The Big Cat Sanctuary/Wildlife Heritage Foundation, Tulsa Zoo, Whitley Fund for Nature, Zoo Basel, Zoo Boise, Zoo Dresden, and Zoo New England.
Thank you to all the many committed partners who have supported our research in Mongolia along with our Long-term Ecological Study since it began in 2008. We could not do this work without you.