After a month of intensive searching, a research team has located the den sites of two female snow leopards and captured astonishing videos of a young cub resting inside a den with its mother. Using GPS radio collars, an international team of scientists has been tracking snow leopards in Mongolia’s South Gobi desert since 2008*.
In May, two of the study’s females began to restrict their daily movements to smaller and smaller areas, which the team interpreted as a signal that both were preparing to give birth. Traveling through steep and rocky mountain outcroppings, the team followed VHF signals transmitted by the collars and finally located the dens on 21 June. Only six kilometers apart, both dens were high up in steep canyons. The first den was in a big cave with a man-made rock wall blocking most of the entrance. ‘As we stood outside the den we could hear the cub and smell the cats but not see anything inside the den,’ noted researcher Orjan Johansson of Sweden. He and his colleagues, Sumbee Tomorsukh of Mongolia, Mattia Colombo of Italy, and Carol Esson of Australia, had to think fast and decided to tape a camera to their VHF antenna.
Extending the camera over the wall they were able to film the inside of the cave. Their remarkable footage shows a female snow leopard lying tucked against the wall staring at the entrance with a paw over her tiny cub.
See The Snow Leopard Trust’s YouTube channel for more great videos on these beautiful big cats.
* This long-term snow leopard study in Mongolia’s South Gobi is a joint project with Snow Leopard Trust, Snow Leopard Conservation Fund, and Panthera, and is in cooperation with the Mongolia Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism and the Mongolia Academy of Sciences.
The above news item is reprinted from the press release of Snow Leopard Trust. Original text may be edited for content and length.
(Source: Snow Leopard Trust, 11.07.2012)
