Fourth snow leopard

I am doing something wrong. We caught our fourth snow leopard a couple of days ago. It is a … male. Surprise eh? Don’t know what it is that I do but I don’t seem to be able to catch females. The leopard is probably a youngster, he was quite small and weighed a little less than 35 kg. We named him Shonkhor (it means falcon in Mongolian). There is a pair of falcons nesting at the trap site and falcons symbolize youth in Mongolia (according to Nadia). I checked traps at three in the night and when I tuned in the trap that we caught him in it was slow first but suddenly changed to fast pulse. Weird, don’t know if my mind played a trick with me or not due to the late hour. Seems like too much of a co-incidence to trap him when I listen to the trap…

Anyways, this guy was not as aggressive as Tsagaan, instead he used a new tactic to avoid being darted. He rolled around and laid on his back. Tricky. Very tricky. 

The teachers I have had on immobilization courses haven’t said anything about where to aim on animals laying on their back… I considered a few places but in the end I had to move in closer to make him roll around again.

The capture went smooth and Emma managed to get blood samples from him (I bow my head and admit that I have been beaten in that skill)…

I hope that Shonkhor is a youngster and that he is moving around to find an area to settle down in. Would be great to get some data on snow leopard

dispersal.   

I am doing something wrong. We caught our fourth snow leopard a couple of days ago. It is a … male. Surprise eh? Don’t know what it is that I do but I don’t seem to be able to catch females. The leopard is probably a youngster, he was quite small and weighed a little less than 35 kg. We named him Shonkhor (it means falcon in Mongolian). There is a pair of falcons nesting at the trap site and falcons symbolize youth in Mongolia (according to Nadia). I checked traps at three in the night and when I tuned in the trap that we caught him in it was slow first but suddenly changed to fast pulse. Weird, don’t know if my mind played a trick with me or not due to the late hour. Seems like too much of a co-incidence to trap him when I listen to the trap…

Anyways, this guy was not as aggressive as Tsagaan, instead he used a new tactic to avoid being darted. He rolled around and laid on his back. Tricky. Very tricky. 

The teachers I have had on immobilization courses haven’t said anything about where to aim on animals laying on their back… I considered a few places but in the end I had to move in closer to make him roll around again.

The capture went smooth and Emma managed to get blood samples from him (I bow my head and admit that I have been beaten in that skill)…

I hope that Shonkhor is a youngster and that he is moving around to find an area to settle down in. Would be great to get some data on snow leopard dispersal.