Researchers have retrieved new photos and videos of snow leopards’ life in the Sayano-Shushensky Biosphere Reserve.

The reserve received and processed new material from motion-sensor cameras following an expedition of its staff and representatives of the Khakassia branch of the Russian Geographical Society.

“Snow leopards go about their normal life: they walk around their territories, stopping at marking spots in order to carefully sniff them and leave their mark. Leopards mark not only with their scent glands but also by clawing trees with their front paws or by scraping the ground with their hind paws. The data obtained from trail cameras confirm that today, as previously reported, six snow leopards live in the Sayano-Shushensky Biosphere Reserve: two grown-up cubs born in 2020, a female brought from Tajikistan and three adult males. All the animals were photographed by cameras and subsequently identified by their pattern of spots and rosettes,” the expedition members said.

In the near future, the researchers of the Sayano-Shushensky Biosphere Reserve will continue processing of the collected material in the lab.