MONGOLIA WINTER SNOW LEOPARD QUEST: Private Snow Leopard Tour in South Gob

HIGHLIGHTS OF TRIP:

Snow Leopard: The undoubted tour highlight was watching and hearing a male SnowLeopard 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.

Tour Summary

This was a private tour and the key focus was to see Snow Leopard well and to tryand 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.

Was the tour a success?

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!

Ulaanbaatar (UB) to Dalanzadgad (DZ)

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.

The Gurvan Saikhan (Beautiful) Mountains & Yol Valley

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

WISE BIRDING HOLIDAYS LTD – MONGOLIA: Snow Leopard Quest! February 2024network 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!

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.

We had a flexible itinerary dependent on our success with the Snow Leopard, but ultimately spent five nights at our base camp. Staying with a local herding family, we were exceptionally well cared for with warmth and delicious food. The camp’s proximity to our Snow Leopard valley was ideal, and our presence supported local herders, promoting Snow Leopard tourism to reduce conflicts between herders and the leopards.

Following our success with the Snow Leopard, we returned to the comfort of Dalanzadgad and spent time in the Yol Valley searching for Pallas’s Cat, where we had success in February 2023. Although not a key target for this private trip, and despite allocating less time than needed at a previously successful vantage point at around 2,450 meters, we enjoyed the impressive snow-covered mountains, great views of Argali, and the rich culture and hospitality of the Mongolian people.

Our final day was spent near Ulaanbaatar, where we dedicated the entire day to birding. We observed several quality species, including 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