In early October, a three-day press tour took place at the Sayano-Shushensky Biosphere Reserve. Its participants included staff members of the Delo Molodykh (Youth Affair) television project from the city of Minusinsk, representatives of the Yug (South) correspondent office of the Yenisei TV channel, and correspondents of the Vesti 24 Khakassia television programme and the Vlast Truda (Labour Power) newspaper.

Journalists took a tour of the protected area to learn more about conservation efforts as well as the environmental and educational trails in the reserve. One trail, Following the Snow Leopard’s Tracks, is designed to raise awareness of environmental issues. In 2016, the project, which was developed by a team of collaborators, received a grant from the Russian Geographical Society.

During the press tour, journalists visited several of the nature reserve’s ranger stations – Golaya, Kerema, Kurgol, and Shugur. At the Shugur station, staff members held a presentation of the Following the Snow Leopard’s Tracks trail, which raises awareness of the reserve’s unique features, its vast landscape and rich fauna, rare species of animals and plants, and the implementation of the programmes to protect the snow leopard, the world’s rarest wildcat.

Journalists were also shown how the snow leopard is photographed in its natural habitat using trail cameras, which have been used in the reserve since 2008 and helped to considerably increase the number of images of snow leopards and obtain new data on individual snow leopards.

The tour participants walked the trail and learnt more about the difference between the tracks of the snow leopard, the Pallas’s cat and the lynx, and the difference between the tracks of the hoofed animals inhabiting the reserve – reindeer and Siberian ibex – from information stands. Journalists also spoke with inspectors of the reserve’s response team and learnt about the daily routine of state inspectors who protect the snow leopard’s habitat.