The 3^rd My Snow Leopard international media wildlife festival, established by the Sayano-Shushensky Biosphere Reserve and Khakassky Nature Reserve, has concluded. The festival has been held with support from the Russian Geographical Society (the Republic of Khakassia’s branch) since 2013.

This year, the organisers received over 200 applications to take part in such categories as Scholarly Work, Research Paper, Creative Writing, Photography, Video Production, Choreography, Theatre Production, Vocal and Instrumental Music, Souvenir and Drawing. The largest number of works were sent in the most popular categories, Souvenir and Drawing, so the panel of judges decided to add special awards to the winners’ certificates. In the Drawing category, the winners were Yuri Blinov, Anastasia Yolshina, Khayuo-ool Anzat and Anastasia Tikhonova, while Gleb Shmelyov, Anton Nitkin, Kristin Oyun and Anna Marchenko received special awards. In the Souvenir category, Vladislav Kukhayev, Eleanor Pate and Natalia Ogloblina were the winners and Artyom Schmidt received a special prize.

The Research Paper category stood out for its complicated topics this year. Examples include: "The impact of musk deer loop hunting on the snow leopard population" (Viktoria Chupina) and "The Physical and geographical aspects of the habitat of the snow leopard and the Pallas’ cat" (Alina Tsikh). A public defence of the works was held at the administrative and sightseeing complex of the Sayano-Shushensky nature reserve on 5 June, World Environment Day.

Members of the Tropinka (Footpath) studio from the small village of Kazantsevo prepared their own video clip about the snow leopard. The audience enjoyed the animated character of the snow leopard, and the presentation of the clip ended with a storm of applause.

Dmitry Dmitrichenko, a young author from Minusinsk, was named the winner in the Creative Writing category. His younger brother Anton emphatically performed Dmitry’s work. The work of Yulia Martsenko from Krasnoyarsk was granted the panel’s special prize.

On 1 July 2015, the works of the participants and winners of the festival will be posted on the event’s web site, where they will be available for all to see.