Stunning Altai Mountains, snow leopard habitat in southern Russia. Photo by Sibylle
It’s hard to believe that a year has passed since I was in Altai mountains, Siberia, southern Russia, searching for snow leopards with a team from Biosphere Expeditions. We were out in this beautiful mountain range for two weeks and saw beautiful birds and groups of ibex. But no snow leopard sign. The team that is there now has been luckier! This report from Andy Stonach.
“On the first day of our Altai Snow Leopard trek we went to the top of Kara Gyem pass. It started off cold and wet, but then turned snowy. Well, after only about an hour of surveying, we found a very clear trail of guess what – snow leopard! The trail was around 10 days old and there were perhaps 40 individual tracks in the mud, mostly very clear Not content with this, our intrepid team then found a second snow leopard trail in the snow, and fresher, much fresher, probably made the night before we arrived; fantastic! Lunch amongst an amazing display of flowers and then watching two groups of Siberian ibex rounded off the day. Doesn’t get any better than that!”
Great news guys! So glad to hear that snow leopards are still out in these beautiful mountains.
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