A camera trap study in in South Gobi's Khorkh mountain range confirmed the presence of snow leopards along with lynx, ibex and argali.
Here’s some good news for your day: snow leopards have been sighted again in the Khorkh mountains in Mongolia for the first time in nearly 30 years! The area surveyed is a small, highly biodiverse sanctuary on the border of China. Snow leopard sightings used to be common, but since the 1990s, there hadn’t been any confirmed reports of their presence.
A new study by the Snow Leopard Trust, however, was the first time there’s been rangers and camera traps in Khorkh. According to the Snow Leopard trust, “we don’t have an unlimited number of cameras or trained field staff, so we have to select our study sites carefully. This is the first time we’ve been able to venture east into Small Gobi A Protected Area – thanks to the help of local rangers, whom we had trained in camera trapping techniques before the survey. The fact that we’ve been able to confirm the snow leopard’s presence here this quickly is encouraging.”
What’s even better is that the camera trap caught photos of multiple individuals, including a mother with young cubs.
(Photo Credit: SLCF Mongolia & Snow Leopard Trust)
V cool!
But why are they… so rotund? I glanced at the picture and thought it was like bad taxidermy or something at first >_>
A combination of body proportions, super floof, and a bad camera angle.
Snow leopards are not super svelte like other big cats. They’re stockier with kind of wide bodies, for the purpose of heat conservation. You can see in this photo that they don’t have the “definition” of warmer-climate cats like tigers.
Add to that the fact that they’ve got the longest and thickest fur of any big cat species, and that they need to put on extra weight to survive the winter… and you get a pretty chunky-looking felid. You can see in the photo below that they can look fairly close to spherical when they’re resting or curled up on themselves.
We’re all fairly used to seeing photos of snow leopards that are either taken in the warmer part of the year, or ones from zoos. Summer coats make cats look less fluffy, and in captive settings, snow leopards don’t need to put on extra weight to prepare for a lean season. But you can see even from photos of snow leopards in human care that they’re still super fluffy animals. Here’s some babies from the LA Zoo - even in a warm climate, they’re still puffy and could easily look rotund if caught at a bad angle.
I think the last part of it is that the camera trap startled them, and you’re getting that cat reaction of ‘arch back and puff up at the scary thing’. Honestly, I’m really happy to see those snow leopards looking so round, because it means they’re healthy and well fed. It just definitely looks a little odd!
I asked on a zoo group for photos of snow leopards known to be in good body condition showing off their floof. This is only a small selection of the incredible photos provided in response. All of these cats are at a perfectly healthy weight for their age and growth stage.
Above is Bataar from Cape May County Zoo on the left, and Raj from Binder Park Zoo on the right. Both at great weights but fairly spherical when at rest. (Photo Credits: J. Berg and Zookeeper Bryan.)
The lovely lady below this text is Misha, from the Sacramento Zoo. You can see how even just sitting, a reproductive-age female snow leopard can look quite round. Directly below her is a group of snow leopards from Assiniboine Park in Manitoba (who I unfortunately don’t have names for) showing how common that aesthetic is for the species. (Photo Credits: M. Owyang and F. Donnelly)
Snow leopard cubs are super fluff when they’re little. The very fresh baby on the right was born at the Welsh Mountain Zoo in the UK, and was probably around two or theee months old when the photo was taken. The older cub on the right is Misha’s son, Coconut, when he was about nine months old. (Photo Credits: M. Rimmer and M. Owyang)
Even though snow leopards are super fluffy, it doesn’t mean their actual body under the coat is chunky. While they’re built a little more stocky than other big cats, they’re still very long when fully stretched out. Here’s Misha and Coconut again to demonstrate: on the left, Misha stands while Coconut sits on a rock; on the right, Misha is standing fully stretched out with her paws on a tree. (Photo Credits: M. Owyang)
And because no photoset of snow leopards would be complete without it, here’s some gratuitous tail from Princess at Tanganyika Wildlife Park. (Photo Credit: K. Randolph)
Oh my; I have just had the world made a better place; thank you @why-animals-do-the-thing the gratuitous tail was the best ending : )
