A new snow leopard has been fitted
with a GPS tracking collar in the South Gobi region of Mongolia! As part of our long-term ecological
study, we will follow this cats movements for the next year. Field researcher,
Orjan Johansson, shares the experience of meeting his 16th wild snow
leopard:

Mood in camp got instantly better when the siren started and the LED
under “Trap alarm” lit up early evening. We rushed to the ATVs and got to the
snare about 50 minutes after it had been triggered. I can’t describe the relief
when I looked over a hill and saw a snow leopard lying on the other side. It
was extremely windy and he had not heard us coming. The cat crawled back
against the wall and lied down looking at us.

We went up to about ten meters from him and except for his eyes, he
didn’t move a whisker. I didn’t want to shoot because the wind was coming from
the side and the darts can easily fly more than a meter of course in such
strong wind. So I took a few steps toward the cat, when I was about seven
meters from him he barred all his teeth in a huge grin, saying “that is close
enough”, still lying down. So I backed one step and he calmed down again and
went back to just glaring at me. Had to wait for the wind to calm down for a
second and then shot. We left the site and when we came back a few minutes
later the cat was asleep in the same position.

Except for the wind the collaring was uneventful. It is quite difficult
to gather all measurements, collect all samples and monitor vital signs when
you have to put rocks on all the equipment to keep it from flying away. The cat
is a new male (obviously), he weighed a little more than 44 kg and we think that
he is 3-4 years old. It will be interesting to see if he is the new dominant
male here. Shonkhor, the old dominant male in this range, died in summer 2011.

Now, we are eagerly waiting for the females. Pretty much the same as a
lot of other guys on a Friday evening…

Source: http://www.blog.snowleopard.org