The Snow Leopard’s Wild Habitat

Ever since I visited Kyrgyzstan for the first time 9 years ago my dream was to see and photograph a snow leopard in the wild in Kyrgyzstan. There are places in the world where this is not that difficult, but Kyrgyzstan isn't one of them. Throughout the years I have done many photo projects in Kyrgyzstan but the only thing that was still missing in my portfolio was the ghost of the mountains : the snow leopard.

Earlier this year my friend Ormon (who was also with me during my wild tulip expedition) contacted me. He told me he was working for the snow leopard foundation in Kyrgyzstan now and if I would be interested to join one of their trips to possibly see and photograph snow leopards in their wild living environment. Of course I immediately said yes.

I'm a landscape photographer but I gladly make exceptions for special opportunities like this. I decided to approach this project slightly different. I wanted to create more of an emotional story and show the very wild and vast landscapes and conditions in which these animals live. I didn't directly expect to see or photograph a snow leopard, as I knew the chances to do this were quite low. I also noticed because of the whole atmosphere of the project my artistic approach was slightly different than normal. I used more black & white and photographed a bit in a more in a documentary style, which felt very fitting for this project. 

Frozen rivers in the sarychat nature reserve. Temperatures dropped to -20c at night and around -10c during the day. This area is very empty and wild. Rough conditions are the home  of the snow leopard.

The Sarychat Nature Reserve

You can find snow leopards all over Kyrgyzstan but the highest density can be found in the Sarychat nature reserve. There are supposed to be between 11-24 snow leopards living in the area that have been documented by the foundation through camera traps. Every leopard has a name. Camera traps can give you absolutely great photos. But for myself, I I wanted to see the snow leopard with my own eyes while taking a photo. Even if that meant taking a photo that isn’t that spectacular.

The Sarychat nature reserve is completely protected. It's wild. It takes about 8 hours of driving through vast wild landscapes and bad roads from the nearest real town. The 'camp' that we stayed in was just a little hut and a yurt, heated by coal. Electricity was done with big solar panels (which worked surprisingly well). The altitude of most of the landscapes there ranges between 3000 and 4000 meters and has temperatures of about -10c during the day to -20c at night. Yes, it was cold. But surprisingly not much snow and very dry at the end of November. And the weather was relatively comfortable with lots of sun and not much strong winds.

We spent about 6 days at the camp with a team of local rangers and a small group of 5 adventurous tourists that came along hoping to see a glimpse of the snow leopard. Our camp was situated in between various valleys and mountain ranges.

The wild landscapes surrounding our camp.

Camp Impressions

Our 'camp' was this yurt and 2 little huts.

Scanning

From sunrise to sunset we were mostly just checking places in the valley and 'scanning'. Scanning is done with advanced scopes to slowly scan an entire landscape for snow leopards or other wild animals. This was done for hours everyday. You could say it was slightly boring, but there really was an exciting aspect to it. It was kind of addicting really. We would find many groups of argali (extremely big sheep with big horns that can only be found in wild areas of central Asia), ibexes and even a group of wolves one morning right next to our camp. Ronan, a conservationist from Scotland that joined the trip brought a pair of thermal binoculars. This was proven to be extremely useful in scanning animals when the light was flat. It was how we found our first snow leopard when we were stopping to see an argali on a mountain ridge. Ronan suddenly spotted the snow leopard nearby through heat.

The Snow Leopards

This leopard had just killed an argali was finished eating it. We could see the carcass on the slope of the mountain. Both brutal and fascinating at the same time. The snow leopard apparently ate a lot as it took multiple sleepy poses and seemed to be tired yet very comfortable. Shortly after, a bearded vulture took it's turn to eat. It was absolutely amazing to see nature unfold like this. Keep in mind that these shots were photographed from great distance (about 1 km) with a 900mm lens and quite some cropping. There were also lots of atmospheric distortions in the air.

The next day we were hoping to see the leopard still roaming around the carcass but it was gone. We did not see a leopard for several days until one morning several days later. Right from the camp Ronan and the rangers saw a snow leopard on the opposite mountain ridge very far away through a scope. We went a little bit closers and actually got to see the snow leopard for almost the entire day. It was like watching BBC. Just observing the snow leopard from very far away walking over several mountain ridges. These ridges were steep, but the leopard just walked on everything like it was absolutely no effort. It was truly spectacular to see.

A cute snow leopard sitting on the mountain ridge (top) , spotted right from our camp by Ronan and the local rangers.

We could see the snow leopard walk on the mountain ridge for hours. That same day, the (almost) full moon was rising behind that same mountain ridges. We were joking that maybe I could get the moon with the leopard. I didn't. Maybe next time?

The wild landscapes

Seeing the snow leopards was ofcourse what i came for, but being a landscape and nature photographer these landscapes fascinated me. The living environment of the animals was for me as important as the animals itself. These landscapes were extremely wild, vast and empty. Well, apart from the bones and skeletons of hunted animals. You would find many argali skulls in the valleys and even around our camp. They looked spectacular with the big horns. Regarding photography it was not that easy to show its vastness. No foregrounds, just completely empty dry mountains with frozen rivers guiding you through. And everyday we would see the moon rise above the mountain ridges. It was beautiful in it's own way. 

Now What?

It was a dream come true to finally see a snow leopard in Kyrgyzstan. Seeing the one especially for multiple hours crossing several 4000+ mountain ridges like it's absolutely nothing was spectacular. Everything was from far away though, and mostly though scopes and my long lens. 

Of course I wanted to take a better photo, and hoped to be lucky with a closer encounter. But on the other hand: it was fine that they were so far away. They were not bothered by our presence and it just felt 'right' to observe them this way. I am sure I will come back one day to try my luck again and see these beautiful cats.

Special thanks to the snow leopard foundation in Kyrgyzstan with in particular Kuban and Ormon. If you want to support or join a wild adventure (only a low amount of tourists are allowed in this area each year) , please do check their website https://snowleopard.kg

If you want to support the foundation in any way, please reach out. Thank you for watching.

Albert