Rangers from the Sayano-Shushensky Biosphere Reserve response group and representatives of the Russian Geographical Society’s Khakassia branch captured a video of a snow leopard. Moving in columns on snow mobiles during a raid, they noticed this wild cat on the bank of a water reservoir.

“The snow leopard was about 15-20 metres from us. We took out our phones and started taking photos and videos. Due to the cold weather, our phones were not working well, but we still managed to get a decent video of this snow leopard. After noticing people, the wild cat did not try to run away. It continued walking calmly up a slope and sometimes even stopped until it moved too far away for us to see it,” said Vladimir Fedoreyev, deputy director for security at the reserve. “Judging by its belly, the animal had a meal shortly before we saw it and was heading to a place of rest,” an expedition member said.

The snow leopard is an elusive animal. It is most active at twilight and has camouflage colouring. It takes good luck to see a snow leopard in its natural habitat. The Sayano-Shushensky Biosphere Reserve is 46 years old, but very few of its employees have seen a snow leopard over these years. For instance, Roman Afanasyev, a senior research associate and head of the reserve’s research department, has seen this predator in the wild only once, although he has been studying snow leopards for over eight years.