Snow leopard

Joy, what is your favorite camouflaged animal? Out of this category,

I chose the snow leopard for a couple of reasons.

Because I'm a summer girl, I said, you know, I'm going to give a nod to winter and cold things.

So I chose snow leopard.

But as I learned more about the facts of the animal, it was quite fascinating to me.

You were talking about being able to hide and not being able to be seen.

Well, that's one of the things that is kind of particular about the snow leopard, the Their spotted rosette pattern on their coats makes it hard for them to be seen in the snow, so much so that there have been camera traps running for years to confirm where they are in various territories, and the cameras still can't even capture them.

And they've been running literally for years, which is, I think, amazing.

Superpower, a brand new outfit when it grows up.

Round three, the snow leopard's built-in blanket.

Snow leopards live high in the mountains of Asia, often about two to three miles up.

that's 3,000 to 4,500 meters.

Everything about them is built for the cold.

And when it sleeps, it wraps that tail over its face like a cozy blanket.

Here's a surprise.

Snow leopards can't roar like lions.

Questo mosaico forestale alternato a radure di graminacee e steppiche offre il rifugio critico per una catena trofica di vertice.

Tra le cenge boscate trovano sostentamento gli ungulati selvatici d'alta quota, in particolare lo stambecco siberiano Capra sibirica e la pecora di Marco Polo Ovis ammon polii, che a loro volta costituiscono la biomassa primaria per la sussistenza del leopardo delle nevi Panthera uncia.

Sovrapascolo e taglio illegale per combustibile domestico.

Nonostante il loro valore ecologico incalcolabile, queste foreste aride versano in condizioni di forte frammentazione.

Only a short flight, two and a half hours, not too bad.

But I was doom scrolling away and I came across an advert for a workshop stroke expedition, call it what you like, to the Altai Mountain region of Mongolia for snow leopards.

Now, this is an area of Mongolia that I have been photographing and traveling in for almost 10 years now.

I've done quite a lot of trips there for snow leopards.

So I know this region well.

I know the logistics of getting there.

I know what the logistics are of trying to find and photograph snow leopards in this region.

And I want to talk about the way this trip was advertised because it's really fascinating.

Umar said.

What would be the Snow Leopard hopping?

That's good.

Snow

The same is true for conservation, starting with Project Tiger.

It has since inspired a menagerie of initiatives, including Project Elephant, Project Snow Leopard, Project Dolphin, and Project Rhino.

Supporting the efforts are two groups.

One is a wildlife bureaucracy of sorts.

Visitors at New York's Bronx Zoo may spot a very furry new face.

Meet Sarka, a four-month-old snow leopard cub now on view with her mama.

That is one cool cat right there.

Snow leopards are built for extreme mountain life.

They have huge padded paws that work like natural snowshoes.

Thick fur, and long woolly tails that help with balance and wrap their bodies for warmth.

In the wild, they're so elusive they're sometimes called ghosts of the mountains.

The species is listed as vulnerable, which is why breeding programs like the zoo's Himalayan highlands habitat matter.

And I really enjoyed it.

We talked snow leopards, his pet hawk, the BBC AI, and what it meant for him to be the first openly gay presenter to front a wildlife series on a major channel.

And the audience, as you can hear, got very involved.

So here's me and Dan O'Neill.

yeah

so should we talk about that

yeah well it's cool so we did a we were we were talking we did a series which is out on now tv now in the uk called snow leopards which if you want to watch it you can you can look it up uh which is all about catching snow leopards in the mongolian gobi desert and how we do it for um for conservation so deploying collars which allows us to understand where they go how they move how they use the environment what they're eating um and that informs our conservation strategy but in such an entertaining and interesting way because no one ever sees snow leopards

yeah famously camera shy aren't they