Lots of Cats

It’s been a while and lots have happened in camp. I had some very busy
days with the German film crew but in the end, I think that they got some
good material. The Germans had hired a driver, a cook and a translator from a
tourist company, Nomadic Journeys, who helped with the work. I had no
idea that it was possible to cook such good food in such a remote place as
our camp. I considered capturing the cook to keep him in camp when the
others left but gave up the idea when I realized that we don’t have the
ingredients required to cook the stuff he did…

Three days before the Germans left we caught up with Aztai. The
batteries in his old collar would be depleted in a month or two so it
was great to change it for a new collar. We have been following him more
or less constantly since August 2008 and hopefully we can follow him for
one more year now. He must be the world’s most well studied snow
leopard. Two Swedish professors that develop a teaching material on
biodiversity and nature conservation for Mongolian schools had arrived
in camp eight hours before we replaced Aztai’s collar. That is a new
camp record for fastest sighting of a snow leopard.

Friday [the camp’s little kitty] gave birth to three kittens one
afternoon. She was restless in the morning so I made a nice box for her,
insulated with spare clothes, a roof and a small entrance. Friday
glanced at it and went for my winter sleeping bag instead, she is a
clever girl and knows exactly which is the warmest place in the ger.
Now, I need my sleeping bag and didn’t want her to mess it up so I
hanged it from the ceiling and went out into the mountains. When I came
back, the sleeping bag was on the bed with a little cat family in it.
Darn cat, worst was that she insisted that in night, I should help keep
the kittens warm and tried to put them in the sleeping bag with me. In
the end I gave up and started using my summer sleeping bag, she doesn’t
like that – not warm enough, so she accepted the box instead. So I am
freezing in my thin sleeping bag and the cats are happy and warm. Oh,
well they provide a lot of joy out here, it adds a lot to life to have a
little cat family in camp so I reckon that I have to accept being a
little cold.

But back business. Most of the snow is gone and I think the snow
leopards Have changed their travel routes a little.

We have found new scrapes or fresh urine on existing scrapes, but in
general it seemed as if the snow leopards were able to avoid us.

Very irritating and something had to be done.

After eight day of experimenting and calculating, we caught a new male,
at the moment he is known as M8. I think that it is one of Supermom’s
previous cubs but I’m not sure yet. He weighed 34 kg and will probably
be two years old in May-June.

After placing the collar, M8 showed me his teeth and growled. Pretty
tough little guy. Given his behavior I wouldn’t be surprised if Tsagaan
is his dad.

Snow Leopard “Supermom” Spotted Again

There is still lots of snow in some parts of the mountains, particularly towards the western side. We tried to go to the area where Shonkhor lives to collect some cameras that have been out since last summer and to check the canyons. When we had about five km left to my old campsite we had to turn around, I got stuck with the motorbike in 40-60 cm of snow and the snowfield seemed to continue throughout the valley that leads to the campsite.

Instead we turned our focus towards the area where Devekh is spending most of his time.

The procedure to find a new area in Tost is not the same as back home. First we identify an area that looks good using the map program on the computer. Since we don’t have any maps, the first thing to do is to find a way to the area. Usually this means that we set out on trails in the general direction that we want to go. We mark landmarks that are easy to recognize with our GPS units and in the evening, when we have returned to camp, we check where we have been, again using the map program. We also mark settlements with particularly mean dogs so we can avoid being chased by them again. Usually, it takes two-three days just to find the area that we want to visit.

So far we have not passed step one – finding a way to the area and avoid mean dogs. But we have gotten quite close to the area and found two settlements that we will try to avoid in the future. At one site, three dogs that seemed determined to not let us go chased us for a long time.

A German film crew will arrive in camp tomorrow. They will spend three weeks here to film material for a documentary about snow leopards and the ongoing work to save the species. We have all three gers up and the place is a lot more lively than usual.

Two weeks ago I found a place that felt as if it would attract snow leopards. There were no scrapes or detectable scent marks there but I was still pretty sure that the leopards couldn’t resist checking it out. It’s a 15 meter long ravine with vertical walls situated in the end of a valley.

In a moment of clarity I put a camera there to see if any cats used the place. The camera took pictures of three snow leopards, including Supermom, in just ten days time. I will give Friday my entire ration of tuna for April unless we place a new collar within the next three weeks.

Speaking of Friday, we think that she is pregnant. Friday is the friendliest cat I have ever met and if her cubs are anything like her it would be worth the trouble of bringing them to your home. Besides, these cats are probably the closest you will come to having a real snow leopard. Except they will likely be small, brown, have normal sized tails and no spots. But they will be born in snow leopard camp and raised in snow leopard habitat.

Supermom was travelling alone on the pictures. Last time we got pictures of her with all three cubs was end of November so sometime between then and now they have left her to discover the mountain on their own. Maybe both her and Friday will have small cubs soon…

Exciting News: Tsagaan is bigger, and Orjan is a pirate

Spring might have finally come to the Gobi. The last days have been warmer, mainly because the wind has shifted and now blows from the south. I think that this caused this year’s first sand storm, which is a sure sign that spring is coming. Back home we wait for buds and flowers to emerge as signs of spring. Here, it’s the sandstorms.

Speaking of sandstorms, about a week ago, I got some debris in my eye while checking the trap signals. I couldn’t get it out and figured that it be easier in daylight. Marie from Sweden is in camp to assist with ibex surveys and daily work. We thought that we would have to go to the hospital in Gurvantes to ask for help but wasn’t sure of how to do it since she can’t drive the Russian van that far.

Well, out of the blue came Miji to see if we needed help with anything. He saw my situation and offered to help me. He stuck his tongue out and made some circles in the air. I realized that he meant that he could lick the debris out. Only thing that came to my mind was that he smokes and was at that time chewing on a dry piece of bread… I frantically took up the rinsing again. No luck.

Finally, I had to give in and take up on his suggestion. Miji pushed me down on the bed, stuck his tongue in my eye and licked in circles. On the second attempt he got the debris out. Extremely weird experience and I think that I looked quite awkward because Marie laughed so hard that she cried. She still managed to get some photos though, and no, they will not appear on the blog.

Later in the evening we replaced Tsagaan’s collar, about 200 meters from camp. Like Aztai, he has also grown since last year. His body is 4 cm longer (120 cm to 124 cm) and he has gained about 3 kg, he weighs 44.9 kg now!

Due to the eye I had to work in “pirate style” with a scarf over my injured eye. Apart from that we have heard Saikhan’s VHF signal now and then for the last six nights. Not sure what he is up to but he seems to be moving around, circling our camp.