Wise Birding Leader: Chris Townend Local Guides: The Tumendelger Family
Snow Leopard: The undoubted tour highlight was watching and hearing a male Snow Leopard calling continuously as the sound echoed throughout the mountains and after 20 minutes or so, a female Snow Leopard appeared! Views down to <200 metres.
Mongolian Gazelle: Small herds seen on the snow covered Steppe.
Siberian Ibex: Daily sightings of up to 30+ animals whilst scanning for cats!
Argali: Two males seen well in the Yol Valley.
A good selection of birds including: Bearded Vulture, Saker Falcon, Upland Buzzard, Pallas’s Sandgrouse, Mongolian Lark, Brown Accentor, Chinese Beautiful Rosefinch, Azure Tit, Long-tailed Rosefinch, Grey-headed Woodpecker, White-throated Dipper subsp. leucogaster, and Pine Grosbeak.
This male Snow Leopard seen on three days was the undoubted tour highlight!
You can see the video highlights from this tour HERE
This was a private tour and the key focus was to see Snow Leopard well and to try and ensure we had numerous encounters with this fabulous cat. After the success of last year’s winter tour, we again coincided our timing with the Snow Leopard mating season when the animals become more visible and vocal and easier to track in snow.
A winter visit to Mongolia for wildlife is of course very much about quality over quantity! Many of the smaller mammals are hibernating or simply less active in the colder temperatures and many of the birds have left the country until Spring. However, if cats are on your wish list then this is a great time of year to visit. Temperatures in mid February in the South Gobi region are warmer than you might think, with average day temperatures at around -10C and dropping to -20C at night. We were a little unlucky this year to coincide with an unusual dip of colder than average temperatures for the first 3 days, but once the temperatures increased and the sun re-appeared, so did the Snow Leopards!
Despite sleeping in traditional Gers for much of the tour, one important factor was that we were never cold due to the ever glowing wood-burning stoves in each Ger! The food in Mongolia was, as always, very good and despite our remote location we were incredibly well looked after with a variety of meals and we were never hungry.
Hopefully the photos and video speak for themselves. This was our second successful winter Snow Leopard tour to South Gobi, Mongolia and the best encounters to date!
An early morning arrival into Ulaanbaatar is typical, but the -29C temperature was certainly a shock to the system when we ventured outside to the car park to take the luggage to our vehicle! Due to an unusually high amount of snowfall in Mongolia this winter, the road to Dalanzadgad was unexpectedly closed due to snow drifts when we arrived. However, it did not take too long for the road to be cleared and we were on our way by 11am, just 3 hours behind schedule.
The distance between the new Chinghis Khaan airport (50Km from UB) and DZ is around 540Km and the journey takes around 6.5 hours on a good tarmac road. Travelling across the vast open Steppe to DZ produced our first sightings of Mongolian Gazelle. In addition to mammals we enjoyed good views of a number of birds including Cinereous Vulture, Upland Buzzard and small flocks of Mongolian Larks and Pallas’s Sandgrouse over the impressive snow covered Steppe landscape. A halfway lunch stop at Mandalgovi broke the journey and we arrived in the early evening for a good meal and sleep.
After a comfortable night at our hotel in DZ, we met for breakfast and headed straight out to the Gurvan Saikhan Mountains ready for our cat quest! Our local guides and friends have been studying the Snow Leopards in these mountains in the Ömnögovi Province of southern Mongolia for many years and as a result they have a great network of local herders that help monitor and keep them updated on the latest Snow Leopard sightings. Many tour companies offering Snow Leopard tours tend to travel much further west into the Khovd region and the Altai Mountains, but this is really not necessary if you wish to see Snow Leopard and Pallas’s Cat.
Our plan was to stay in Gers with a local herding family, a drive of around 2hrs from our hotel. We decided to head straight to the nearby Snow Leopard hotspot close to our camp and within just a few minutes of us arriving (and almost an identical scenario to our trip in Feb 2023), our local guide found a Snow Leopard peering down at us from the top of one of the mountain crags! It was such a good feeling to know that we could relax, just a little, knowing that the quest had been successful on our first full day. However, despite being surrounded by spectacular mountains and being privileged to be watching such an amazing animal, it was only showing its head every now and again with its body hidden behind rocks. The scope views were great, but despite waiting patiently for a few hours and returning again in the evening, the cat never showed its entire body to us for more than a few seconds. So, we finished the day very pleased to have seen our first leopard, but we really just wanted more!
The next four days were unusually cold and we stuck with our daily routine of scanning and checking the usual Snow Leopard hotspots and speaking with the local herders to obtain the most recent sightings. However, despite our best efforts we had no further sightings until finally, the sun re-appeared and the temperatures increased to normal. Then on day five we literally hit the jackpot!!
Needless to say, it was a very memorable day as we watched a very relaxed male Snow Leopard at an amazingly close distance of under 200 metres!
Our first full out in the open view of this beautiful male Snow Leopard on the 24th Feb: Chris Townend
After some amazing views, the cat finally fell asleep, still in view, but in the shade. The weather was sunny with a cold slight breeze and the temperature was around -8C throughout the day as we simply enjoyed observing the cat washing, yawning, sleeping, changing position and of course more sleeping! Our hot lunch brought to us by our amazing hosts and we had time to take in the amazing landscape whilst we waited until early evening when we hoped the cat would become more active, but we were not quite prepared for what happened next!
At around 5pm the male Snow Leopard suddenly woke up and began to call continuously as its deep roar echoed throughout the incredible mountain landscape!
See video here: https://vimeo.com/920067939 (click settings 4K for best quality)
It then proceeded to roll around in the dirt!
See video here: https://vimeo.com/917996726 (click settings 4K for best quality)
Within 15 minutes a female then appeared!
See video here: https://vimeo.com/983223805 (click settings 4K for best quality)
The two cats followed each other and we finally lost sight of them at 5.30 pm – Wow!
After all that excitement, we were then treated to more incredible views the next morning as we watched the same two animals together for another two hours.
Male and female Snow Leopard
We always had a flexible itinerary dependent on our success with the leopard, but in the end we spent a total of five nights at our base camp. We were staying with a local herding family and were exceptionally well looked after with warmth and food! The beauty of the camp was that we were just a few minutes from our Snow Leopard valley and more importantly, we were supporting the local herders and promoting Snow Leopard tourism in order to help reduce Snow Leopard conflicts with herders.
Following our success with Snow Leopard we decided to return to the comfort of Dalanzadgad and spend time in the Yol Valley looking for Pallas’s Cat where we had been successful in February 2023. This was never a key target species for the private trip and we really gave it less time than required despite visiting a previously successful vantage point at around 2,450M. We still enjoyed the impressive snow covered mountains, some great views of Argali and time enjoying the culture and wonderful hospitality of the Mongolian people.
Our final day was spent near Ulaanbaatar where we spent the whole day birding and where we enjoyed a number of quality species that included Azure Tit, Siberian Long-tailed Rosefinch, White-throated Dipper, Grey-headed Woodpecker and Pine Grosbeak.
We recorded a total of 6 species of mammal and 36 birds on this tour.
The photos & video grabs that follow were taken by Chris Townend
Male Snow Leopard
The Beautiful Mountains
| DAY | DATE | Short itinerary, temperatures & highlights |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sun 18th Feb | Arrival UB airport – Travel to DZ – Lunch Mandalgovi Weather: -29c to -15c sunny & calm Highlights: Mongolian Gazelle, Mongolian Larks & Pallas’s Sandgrouse Overnight Dalanzadgad Hotel |
| 2 | Mon 19th Feb | DZ to Beautiful Mts Base Camp Weather: -21c to -12c sunny windy at times Highlights: Snow Leopard watched 10.30hrs – 13.00hrs & 17.00 – 18.45 Overnight Beautiful Mts Ger Base Camp |
| 3 | Tue 20th Feb | Snow Leopard Valley Weather: -21c to -17c overcast all day. Light snow showers in morning. Highlights: Siberian Ibex, Lammergeier, Beautiful Rosefinch, Brown Accentor, Horned Larks. Found fresh SL goat kill. Overnight Beautiful Mts Ger Base Camp |
| 4 | Wed 21st Feb | Snow Leopard Valley Weather: -21c to -15c overcast / sunny periods. Cold wind in afternoon. Highlights: Siberian Ibex, Lammergeier, Cinereous Vulture. Overnight Beautiful Mts Ger Base Camp |
| 5 | Thur 22nd Feb | Snow Leopard Valley Weather: -15c to -11c Overcast with a little sun in the afternoon. Highlights: Siberian Ibex, Hawfinch, Lammergeier, Red-billed Chough. Overnight Beautiful Mts Ger Base Camp |
| 6 | Fri 23rd Feb | Snow Leopard Valley Weather: -15c to -7c Sunny all day, cold wind. Highlights: Male and female Snow Leopards! Male watched from 09.15 – 17.30 and female 17.15 – 17.30. Overnight Beautiful Mts Ger Base Camp |
| 7 | Sat 24th Feb | Snow Leopard Valley and Yol Valley PM Weather: -15c to -8c Cold wind late afternoon Highlights: Same 2 Snow Leopards watched from 09.15 – 11.10. Pallas’s Pika and White-winged Snowfinch flocks. Overnight Dalanzadgad |
| 8 | Sun 25th Feb | DZ Park and Baraduuz Plantation and Yol Valley Weather: -14c to -8c sunny all day Highlights: Argali, Mongolian Gazelle, Bohemian Waxwing and a flock of 200+ Mongolian Lark. Overnight Dalanzadgad |
| 9 | Mon 26th Feb | DZ to UB Weather: -4c to -18 Highlights: Pallas’s Sandgrouse, Upland Buzzards, Cinereous Vultures. Overnight Mongolica Hotel, UB |
| 10 | Tue 27th Feb | Tuul River and Zaisan Forest Bogd Khan Camp Weather: -29c to -11c calm and sunny Highlights: Wapiti, White-throatd Dipper, GH Woodpecker, Pine Grosbeak, Azure Tit, LT Rosefinch and Azure-winged Magpie!. Overnight Mongolica Hotel, UB |
| 11 | Wed 28th Feb | Breakfast and transfer to airport |
Male Siberian Ibex, Beautiful Mountains
Male Argali, Yol Valley
Mongolian Gazelle, Mongolian Steppe
Wapiti near Ulaanbaatar
Presumed Pallas’s Pika, Yol Valley
Siberian Ibex Snow Leopard Kill
Our very first view of Snow Leopard on day 1
Brown Accentor and Snow Leopard
Female Snow Leopard
Brown Accentor and Hawfinch
Male Pallas’s Sandgrouse
Bearded Vulture
Immature Golden Eagle and Upland Buzzard
Scanning for cats! and Yol Valley
Beautiful Mountains
Mongolian Lark and Flock of Mongolian Larks
Bohemian Waxwing
Male Grey-headed Woodpecker
Horned Lark and Male Pine Grosbeak
White-throated Dipper
Base Camp Ger and Local herders keeping watch!
The Steppe road to Dalanzadgad and Welcome to Dalanzadgad
Queens of the Desert Statues, Dalanzadgad
Mongolica Hotel
The following bird checklist follows the nomenclature and classification from Gill F, D Donsker & P Rasmussen (Eds). 2022. IOC World Bird List (v13.1). https://www.worldbirdnames.org/new/
The mammal checklist mostly follows the IUCN framework (Red List) but also the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) www.gbif.org and Handbook of The Mammals of the World.
The IOC World Bird List complements three other primary world bird lists that differ slightly in their primary goals and taxonomic philosophy, i.e. The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World, The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World, 4th Edition and HBW Alive/Bird Life
This private tour was solely focused on obtaining numerous good sightings of Snow Leopard and less time to focus on other mammals. Therefore we saw less mammals than on our 2023 trip.
Snow Leopard Pathera uncia
The undoubted tour highlight was watching and hearing a male Snow Leopard calling continuously as the sound echoed throughout the mountains and after 20 minutes or so, a female Snow Leopard appeared! Overall we were prvileged to Snow Leopard sightings on three separate days with two animals together (male and female) on two separate days. A total of 15 hours viewing time and distances of 180M – 450M. The key success was the fact we had plenty of time to enjoy behaviour and the sheer beauty of these amazing cats.
Wapiti Cervus canadensis sibiricus
Two animals were seen close to our hotel near UB on the morning of the 27th and 28th.
Siberian Ibex Capra sibrica
Many good views over five days whilst scanning for Snow Leopards in the Beautiful Mountains. Counts varied from 7 – 30+ individuals.
Argali Ovis ammon
Two males seen well in the Yol Valley on the morning of the 25th.
Mongolian Gazelle Procapra gutturosa
Recorded on two days whilst in the Steppe with smaller counts compared to last year. Counts of just 2 – 37 animals.
Pallas’s Pika Ochotona pallasi
Seen very well on two days with up to 6+ animals seen well in the Yol Valley.
Young Siberian Ibex
Chukar Partridge Alectoris chukar
Recorded on two days with a total of 13 birds on the 21st whilst in the Beautiful Mountains.
Pallas’s Sandgrouse Syrrhaptes paradoxus
Small flocks recorded on four days with counts from 8 – 65 including some excellent views on the ground.
Rock Dove Columba livia
Small groups of 2 – 4 birds recorded at least three days.
Bearded Vulture Gypaetus barbatus
Recorded on seven days with counts of 1 – 3 birds and many superb views.
Cinereous Vulture Aegypius monachus
Recorded on 8 days with some very close views. Daily counts of between 2 – 10 birds.
Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos
A single bird seen very low down and perched on the morning of the 22nd.
Upland Buzzard Buteo hemilasius
Small numbers recorded on just four days with a high count of 12+ birds on the 26th while travelling from Dalanzadgad to Ulaanbaatar.
Grey-headed Woodpecker Picus canus
Great views of a male in the snow close to the Zaisan Forest, Bogd Khan Tourist Camp.
Saker Falcon Falco cherrug
Two birds circled above us whilst looking for mammals in the Yol Valley on the 25th.
Eurasian Jay Garrulus glandarius
A single bird in the Zaisan Forest, near UB on the 27th.
Azure-winged Magpie Cyanopica cyanus
A minimum of 12 birds along the Tuul river on the morning of the 27th.
Eurasian Magpie Pica pica
Recorded near UB on the first and last days of the trip.
Red-billed Chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax
Recorded on three days with counts of 20+ birds.
Western Jackdaw Corvus monedula
Recorded on the final two days near the Mongolica hotel.
Daurian Jackdaw Corvus dauuricus
Recorded on the final two days near the Mongolica hotel. A high count of 41 birds in a mixed roosting flock of Western/Daurian on the evening of the 27th.
Carrion Crow Corvos corone
Recorded near UB on three days.
Northern Raven Corvus corax
A common species recorded daily.
Bohemian Waxwing Bombycilla garrulus
Six birds in a park in DZ on the 25th and a single on the 27th near the Mongolica hotel.
Willow Tit Poecile montanus
At least 5 birds recorded on the 27th with birds at the Tuul River and the Zaisan Forest.
Azure Tit Cyanistes cyanus
Great views of at least 4 birds by the Tuul river on the 27th.
Great Tit Parus major
Counts of 6+ birds along the Tuul river on the 27th.
“Steppe” Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris
Recorded daily with some very large flocks of hundreds of birds whilst travelling through the Steppe. The subspecies is brandti and sometimes referred to as Steppe Horned Lark.
Mongolian Lark Melanocorypha mongolica
Great views of this unmistakable and very attractive species with flocks seen whilst travelling to and from Dalanzadgad. Typical groups of 10+ birds, though flocks in the Yol Valley on two days produced surprise counts of 70+ and a single flock of 200+ birds.
Eurasian Nuthatch Sitta europaea
A single bird in the Zaisan Forest on the 27th.
Black-throated Thrush Turdus atrogularis
Thrushes seemed scarce this winter with just a single bird near DZ Plantation on the 25th.
White-throated Dipper Cinclus cinclus
Great views of the distinctive white-bellied subsp leucogaster at the Tuul river on the 27th.
White-winged Snowfinch Montifringilla nivalis
Seen very well in the Yol Valley on two days with up to 100+ birds.
Eurasian Tree Sparrow Passer montanus
Small flocks on at least four days around the Yol Valley and UB.
House Sparrow Passer domesticus
Seen on two days around Ulaanbaatar and Dalanzadgad.
Brown Accentor Prunella fulvescens
Some excellent views whilst in the Beautiful Mountains with counts of 6+ birds and even seen in the same scope when watching Snow Leopards!
Siberian Long-tailed Rosefinch Carpodacus sibiricus
Good views of 2 birds including a male near the Tuul river on the 27th.
Hawfinch Coccothraustes coccothraustes
Unusual to see in winter with counts of 3-5 birds recorded on three days. Birds seen in the Beautiful Mountains on two days and near the Mongolian Hotel.
Pine Grosbeak Pinicola enucleator
A flock of at least 12 birds, including bot males and females, were seen at very close range whilst birding the Zaisan Forest near UB on the 27th.
Chinese Beautiful Rosefinch Carpodacus davidianus
Two female birds in the Beautiful Mountains were unusual for the time of year.
Conservation Donation – Following this tour to Mongolia, £150 was transferred to the Wise Birding Holiday’s central conservation fund.
In previous years Wise Birding Holidays has supported a number of small conservation projects. To try and make a bigger difference to conservation we now pool the donations from most of our tours into one central fund. Once a target amount has been reached this money will be used to support a single project in the hope of achieving more for species conservation. Currently this amounts to almost £10,000. On occasions, we still donate money to help smaller projects that we feel will still benefit from smaller donations. Please visit www.wisebirding.co.uk to find out more about the projects we support.
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