Back to the Little Cats

The plan for today is to look for Pallas' cats again in the morning before the annual herders horse race scares them into their burrows for the day.  We were looking forward to the horse race.  Normally, a Mongolian horse race uses children as jockeys since they're smaller and the horses run in a straight line for longer distances.  In this race, the herders actually ride the race.  They go from a point in the steppe and race to the village, changing horses midway.  This race is about 50 km.  The Mongolian Derby is actually the longest horse race in the world, at 1000 km, with a requirement that the rider change horses every 40 km at designated stations.  I might want to come back to see the Derby!  I know I'm not doing everything I want to do in Mongolia in this trip.

So, we headed out looking for the little cats.  They generally weigh about 3-5 kg (7-11 lbs), which is about the size of a normal house cat.  They look like a large, long-haired house cat because they have sooooo much fluff.  They actually have the densest fur of any cat species, with the undercoat on the bellies and tails being the densest to protect from the frozen ground that it will come in contact with.

While we were watching a burrow, a man came up and told us that the horse race was cancelled, not rescheduled, because all signs said they should move today.  Moving day is a big deal on the steppe, as it's the day(s) that the herders move from one grazing area to another.  Though this winter has been cold, it has not gotten the snow they generally get.  We had seen a few times where people were scooping up snow and putting it in bags.  That is the source of water on this part of the steppe, and when that's gone, so is the water.  As you've been able to tell in the pictures, there's not much snow left.  So, along with other signs of nature, the herders have gotten together and decided that today is moving day, so there will be no horse race.  We didn't see much, maybe because of all the activity in the steppe.  After lunch, we did watch a nice kill through the scope from far, far away.  The little kitty did the little tail shake and pounced on the prey (most certainly a gerbil since the other prey are hibernating) and then ate it.  As our friend from Hong Kong put it, we wanted to see a kill that we could capture on camera!  So we headed down to the area where a few burrows were.  Our guy stuck his head up for just a second, but that's all we got.  Surprising because there were plenty of gerbils running around!

We also saw a horned lark, which along with the Mongolian lark, appears to be the only small songbird on the steppe at this time of year.

We got a few nice shots of the upland buzzard, too

The next morning, we decided to go out early.  Our initial plan was to go out early looking for cats and then to go camel riding in the afternoon while Bina, Yumchin, and Ariuna go to a community meeting.  They are very diligent about making sure they work with the community to ensure the tourism they do is benefitting the community instead of being a drain.  They work within the needs of the community and herders.  But, because of moving day(s), that meeting was postponed.  So we went out for a full day.

And what a day!  The wind was wicked!  So, my companion and I mostly stayed in the car while Bina and our driver went looking for cats.  They are great about coming to get us for things, even if it isn't a cat.  Our first find today was a silver mountain vole.

We also saw another bearded vulture, this one in flight. But, I got a few decent shots of him!

Around 9:30, we found a cat near the rocks, where they aren't generally found.  We were waaay out at first and barely saw him even on the scope.  We made a few moves to get closer, trying to make sure we didn't spook him.  We did get closer, but were still pretty far out.  We were afraid to get any closer, though, since he was out and moving around.  I decided to stay in the car and use the window/door as a stabilizer for the camera.  At one point, he found his prey and started stalking it.  You may need to zoom into this video.  You can use CTRL+ to zoom in YouTube, which I think this video will come up in.  If it comes up in Media Player, use Win+.  You can see why he needs that super insulated undercoat on his belly and tail as he stalks the gerbil.  Around 2:10, his butt wiggles.  Around 2:20, he attacks.  It's not a major move.  No real pounce.  Just a grab.  Around 2:29, you can see his head go down, and he starts eating.  I did my best to hold the camera stable, but I'm not a good videographer and this lens combo is heavy!  Plus, it was out as far as it would go, so we're looking at about 1200 mm, which registers even the slightest movement!

We tried to get a little closer, and pressed our luck.  He heard us and decided the photo shoot was over.  These guys are just so stinking adorable!!  

Yumchin found one out in the open and I got a little handheld video of him scamping off.  Again, we pressed our luck and got too close.

Since we were having such good luck finding them on such a windy day, we decided to stay out and have lunch while we kept searching, so once again, the camp crew brought lunch out to us.  We didn't see anything else until after lunch, though.

It really didn't take long to find another, though.  We wanted to get closer, though, so we went over by the big rocks that would make a hill and the drivers tried to gently urge him to come closer to us.  But, that didn't work.  We didn't factor in the big rock pile between us and the cars that he decided to hide in.  We actually saw him on the rocks.  We didn't stay long, just enough to get a couple of shots off, then we went away and sat by the base of the hill, at the big rocks.

I really wanted to reach down and give him scritches behind the ear!

We expected him to come out on the left side and take off, so I had that heavy lens combo stabilized on my left knee, waiting for him to come out.  Imagine my surprise when he came out on the right side!  I think I did a fairly decent job shifting the camera over to the other side of my body and holding it for the video!

We had a very active day and it was getting close to dinner time with the sun hanging low on the horizon.  There's my creative writing contribution for this trip.  And I needed to hand wash some unmentionables in a pan over the wood stove, so back to camp we went!

An Even More Exciting Cat Day

Our initial thoughts were to see more of Scarface today, but the trackers said he ate a whole lot last night, and he wasn't seen outside anywhere near his den.  So, they went looking elsewhere, hoping to find the mama and cubs.  

Bina and our driver searching for cats and anything else they can find

I forgot to write down what kind of bird this was, but we did see it.

A little bit into our foray, the trackers called and let us know they found a male, not Scarface, so off we went.  He was sunning himself on the high rocks.  We watched him from the scopes, but he was really high up there.  While the guides and trackers were trying to consider how we could get closer without scaring him back into his den, they had lunch brought out to us.  

All three of us tourists were there, and we saw this bag of yellowish-red grains of some type, so we asked what it was.  Yumchin explained to us about the "offering".  In Mongolia, most religion is rooted in shamanism, though many shamanic practices have been incorporated into the local Buddhism.  Shamanism and Buddhism are the primary religions in the country, as they have been blended very closely.  There are very few Muslims or Christians in the country.  The offering is rooted in Shamanism, but it has been incorporated into the Mongolian Buddhist practices, so it is very commonly used.  Yumchin told us we could provide the offering to any entity that we wanted; that it is not specific to any particular god, spirit, or ancestor.  You take a handful of the grain (if you're using grain - a spoon if you're using milk), and toss it three times, putting your wish or blessing into the universe.  You can repeat the same wish/blessing to the same entity or you can change your wish/blessing and entity.  I did a wish and two blessings to Pachamama (Mother Earth, common in South America, originating in native Quechua), which felt very natural to me, though I had never done it before.

The decision was made that the trackers would go up the back of the hill to be sure if we scared him, he would run where we could take pictures of him instead of to the back of the hill.  We would climb up the hill on the top of the hill just in front of him and just below his spot.  Yumchin asked us if we thought we could walk about 50 meters straight up.  I told him as long as there was somebody to help stabilize my balance and we could stop to breathe as needed, I could do it.  Once the trackers were in place, we started up the hill.  Yumchin and the new guide trainee carried my camera equipment and Ariuna held my hand to make sure I made it up the hill.  It was a lot farther than 50 meters, and we picked our way through the rocks.  I was REALLY happy I had all the support.  

It's a lot higher and steeper than it looks!

We finally got set up, and Yumchin noticed my red sweater and suggested I zip my jacket.  Apparently, they train the golden eagles for hunting using red and there have been cases where people wearing red have been attacked.  So, I zipped up and didn't wear the red sweater again in Mongolia.  After a while, a leopard came out, and we started taking shots.  After we got back to the camp, we learned that this was a different leopard, this one a female, the mama.  They have named her Alungoo.  Alungoo is a Genghis Khan ancestor who had five children and taught them to unite the tribes because 5 arrows together can't be broken, but individual arrows can.  Also, "goo" in Mongolian means beauty.  She is a sexy lady!

She laid on that slab for hours.  I got a lot of pictures, but they're all pretty much like this.  Since the trackers were behind her and it was beginning to get dark, the trackers decided to try to mobilize her.  They made noises that were unfamiliar to her, but not scary, so she would get up and move.  It worked.

After she found a place to hide, we headed down the hill.  Ariuna and one of the trackers, Manul, helped me down, one on each side.  No way I could have fallen!  When we got to the bottom of the hill, they pointed out that the three cubs were on the next hill.  

I looked at the cubs through the scope and got my camera from whoever was carrying it.  Then they started yelling that there were two adults out, so we forgot the cubs and turned to the happy couple.  They obviously saw us, but they were not concerned about us being there to watch!  They were on the hill we had just come down.  The coloring difference is because of the difference in lighting.  Some of these were shot by Bina who was trying to line the camera up for me.

She looks very happy here, and it definitely didn't look like two housecats.

The coloring is great camouflage.  It can be hard to see them even though I know where they are!  Both cats are in this picture.

They're walking up the hill together.

This is what they did when they reached the top!

When they went to the other side, we started packing up.  It was too dark to get decent shots of the cubs, but they weren't babies anymore.  Female cubs stay with their mother for two years, and these are at the one year mark, so not really so young, but still cute.  Females don't usually re-breed until the cubs are weaned and chased away, so we're not really sure what she's going to do.  Bina got shots on the other side of the hill with his drone.  He's going to send us a link for the shots he got, but the link will only last for 3 days, so we asked him to hold off until we could download them in those three days.  We've been told that the Margaz Mountains allow for closer pictures than the Altai, and the girl from Hong Kong is confirming that, as she came back here to get closer shots than she got on her last trip to in the Altai.

All in all, an amazing day wildlife watching in the Margaz Mountains of Mongolia!

What could tomorrow bring?!

Is It Luck or Hard Work and Skill?

The next day, we got up and went out searching, which will be the normal beginning of our days for a while.  We saw some ibex, but no sign of cats.  I thought I got pictures of the herd, but apparently that's a different day and a different herd that I'm remembering because there are no pictures of ibex in this day's folders.

Just before lunch, we got a call that a "kill" had been spotted, so we packed up and headed that direction.  The trackers had gotten there and had pictures, checking out the kill, and determined (and Bina confirmed) that it was, indeed, a snow leopard kill.  Apparently, a herder saw two goats up on the rocks last night and decided to go up and retrieve them this morning if they didn't come down.  I'm not sure why he didn't go after them when he saw them since they know snow leopards are in the area and that snow leopards only attack on the rocks.  Now that I re-read that, maybe I DO understand why the herder didn't go into the rocks!  Anyway, this morning, he went out to retrieve them and one had been killed and the other was stuck in a crevice from trying to run.  The herder went up and tried to save the stuck one, but it ended up falling to its death.  Instead of trying to hunt down the snow leopard that killed his goats, the herder called up one of our trackers and let them know what happened.  Based on past behavior, the leopard isn't expected to come out to feed again during the day, especially with the herder close.  So we went back to camp for lunch and to bring lunch back to the trackers while they stayed in the area to watch for the snow leopard.

While at camp, we learned that our flight from Ulaistai to Ulaanbaatar was cancelled and unable to be rescheduled.  This meant we would have to give up on potentially seeing the Eurasian lynx, which would be a long shot anyway, but we add back the Przewalski horse and Saiga antelope.

After a quick lunch, we returned where we left the trackers, and the snow leopard had come out to sun himself.  He was far, far away.  He was even difficult to see through the 60X Swarovski spotting scope, but see him we absolutely did!  It was exciting!  While we were standing around in the sun, I got hot, so I took off my parka.  You would have thought I grew another head!  These tough Mongolian men, accustomed to the western, mountainous steppe in early spring, in layers with traditional deels, and I'm stripping off my parka.  Keep in mind that I'm still wearing my merino wool base layer and my sweater.  There's no wind; the sun is out; and it's probably just above freezing.  And I might have a touch of POTS, so my autonomic nervous system was having some difficulty with the lack of activity and being on my feet.

We tried to move to what should be a better vantage point, but it would be difficult to get there.  We agreed to give it a try.  With assistance, I was able to make it up about halfway, but when we had to make the turn to go up the edge, a little fear of heights hit my companion, and we ended up coming back down.  By the time we got down, the trackers had found an even better vantage point that was easy to get to and at the same altitude as our leopard so we headed over there.

For some reason, we couldn't get the ball head on my tripod to hold well, so we're stuck with the limitations of my abilities, which include my tremor.  It was awesome!  The trackers and guides were all just as excided as we were at seeing this guy.  Apparently, he's a large boy with a scar over his nose.  They call him Scarface, and they've only ever seen him on trail cameras until now.  He was just on the next hilltop.  Estimates of distance are about 400 meters, but the admission from everybody is that nobody is really very good at judging distance.  I used a crop sensor camera with a 150-600 mm lens and a 2x teleconverter, so I got a distance of 1200 mm plus whatever the math works out to when factoring in the crop sensor.  Plus, I cropped into these further.

He spent most of the day, snuggled up like this.  He wasn't concerned about us at all.

He made it obvious that he knew we were there by periodically raising his head and looking at us.

Sometimes, he had a lick and yawn.

The trackers mounted a cell phone holder to the Swarovski 60x scope, and got even better looks when also zooming in on the phone cameras.  Here's a video they took on my phone.  Galaxy S24.  The 60x is estimated to be around 1200mm, and the S24 has a 30x zoom, so from what I can understand (and I could be wrong), that would be around 1500mm.  Somebody who knows this stuff can fill me in if they want.

Back to my shot of him looking at us.  No concern at all in his beautiful blue eyes!

At one point, a bird flew over and caught his attention.

At one point, he rolled over, giving us the "back of disdain".

As it started getting night, he stood up and gave us a long look

and headed to the other side of the hill without even saying, "Goodbye!"  Sorry about the shakiness.  My tremor was getting worse because I was tired and cold.  Yes, I had put my coat back on long before and the sun was going down.

When we got back to camp, it was dark, and people were talking about how lucky we were to see him.  After thinking about it a little bit, I had to argue that it wasn't really luck.  Bina and Yumchin, the principals of Soaring Expeditions, have worked very hard to set trail cameras, train the trackers, develop relationships with the herders and other community members, and studied the activities of the local fauna for many years.  The trackers have grown their skill over the years, too.  Without all of that work and dedication, the herder wouldn't have even thought about calling us.  Without all of that work, the trackers wouldn't have known how to watch for him to come out and what radial area he may come out into.  Without all of that work, nobody would have a clue of how Scarface may act.  And without knowledge of the terrain and how to move around without spooking him, the trackers never would have been able to locate that good viewing vantage point.  I contend that there was more skill involved than luck on our ability to see our first snow leopard.  The guys humbly agreed.  After dinner, we all headed to our respective gers with warm fuzzies to accompany the fires.  I don't know about everybody else, but I dreamed of more cats!

Heading Out for Cats!

Up bright and early for a long drive out to the snow leopard camp.  I managed to get a shot of the giant traditional boot on the way out of Khovd.

It wasn't long before we turned off the paved road, onto what passes in Mongolia as a road.  I had trouble seeing that road, and there were multiple choices of paths one could take.  Often, when you could see the "road", it was time for drivers to choose a different route to take.  Over time, I came to realize that in Mongolia, what passes as a "road" is more like a "concept of a road!"  Bruce, I've never asked you to navigate this type of area!

For the longest time, it was just plain, barren ground.  Bina said it would get green once it warmed up.  There were ice and snow patches that would melt to make water on the dirt, and there were a few spots where a patch had melted and there was some green.  Not much, but some.  There were some small birds that were impossible to photograph.  Bina said they were horned lark or Mongolian lark, with the horned lark being most prevalent.  We did see a sand grouse, but it flew away before I could get an identifiable shot.  After a while (a couple of hours), we came across a herd of camel.  Livestock herds here are camel, cattle, horses, and goats.

We also drove past what appeared to be deposits of bentonite, similar to the Bentonite Hills in Utah.  I found resources that indicated bentonite is found in the Gobi, but we were on the Western Steppe.  The fact that nobody has documented it in this inhospitable land doesn't mean it's not there.  But it could easily be another mineral causing these colors.

About halfway through, around lunch time, we found some pavement for a few kilometers.  That gave us an opportunity to stop for gas and grab some snacks from the back of the car.  We saw lots more livestock, including goats, cattle, and horses.  I only took pix of the goats crossing the road. 

At some point, after we passed a tire on the ground, we turned off the pavement, down the embankment (which wasn't small), and back on the concepts of roads.  This would be the last pavement we would see for several days.  I was so surprised at leaving the road like we did that I didn't even think to snap a picture!  I have to admit that, while I never stopped being amused by it, I did grow accustomed to road signs being replaced with tires and animal skulls with beer bottles or pieces of fabric sticking out of them.  And somehow, these guys knew where they were going - which tire, which animal skull, which shrub  to turn at.  The closest we came to getting lost was one of them deciding that we should be on the track next to us.  After another several hours, we pulled into our ger (yurt) camp.  I didn't take a camp shot this time.  I took one on almost the last night when we came in from looking for wildlife, so the lighting on it is much different than these.  I did get some shots of parts of the camp including the rock formation that looks a little like a snow leopard!

 

These guys with Soaring Expeditions are awesome.  They rent the gers from local herders and members of the closest community.  They also hire locally.  When we arrived, we settled in, had dinner, and got ready for our first day out.  I didn't take pictures inside my ger until the second night, but I'm going to go ahead and show you the inside now.

My ger had a little page that had 10 interesting fact about the Mongolian ger.  This included statements about what some parts stand for, the direction they are oriented, the fact that they are one of the oldest housing forms, and that the traditional gers are made with no nails or screws.  In fact, the ger I was staying in was mostly tied together, but you could tell that more recent repairs were made with screws.

Heat escaped through the top, and the smoke escaped through the chimney from the wood/coal stove.  My ger also had lots of decorations on the wood in the ceiling.

We did have a chemical toilet, so I didn't need to go outside if I needed to go.

As you can see, I had already exploded around my ger.  I had two beds and a table in my ger.  I also had a sink and a mirror that was just high enough to reflect my boobs every morning while I was brushing my teeth!  We had a light bulb that was run from a battery, and once Yumchin returned with the Starlink, we had wifi while the generator was running.  We did not have showers, but I brought wipes and could heat water on the wood stove.  I was also wearing merino wool, which is good for eating stink.

All the time leading up to this trip, I was afraid I was going to get cold, but the ger was definitely well heated.  I actually had to ask the guy who kept the fire going to skip a time or two.  It was so hot, I had to sleep over the covers until the fire burned down.  I slept well, though.

Up the next morning and headed out for our first search.  The trackers headed out before we had breakfast, so they were already searching.  When we headed out, Bina would take the spotting scope out and our driver would take binoculars and search along the rocks in the next slope.  We always searched from far away and then determined the best way to get as close as we safely could.  We saw an ibex (which I missed), and then got a call from the trackers that they had Pallas' cat.  So, off we went.  We sat in the car and waited for him to come out of his burrow.  Here is my first good look at him!

They live in burrows that they take over when marmots move out, and they eat gerbils.  He turned and looked all directions, and at one point, a falcon swooped down and grabbed the only gerbil we saw.  We have to take away his vicious cat card, because when the falcon came, the cat jumped back down into his burrow.  Of course, the falcon is about the same size as the cat!  Pallas' cat is about the size of an average house cat, about 6-10 lbs and 18-26 inches.  They are soooo fluffy, too!  I got lots of pictures, but he never came out of his burrow, so I'll show different sides of his head, including when he was looking behind.

It's hard to see the back of his head.

and when he was looking in my direction

But mostly, he just had the top of his head out and his eyes.

After lunch, we went back out.  We checked a different area, and we found an upland buzzard,

elk

ibex,

bearded vulture,

and another Pallas's cat walking along the top of the rocks.  Nobody got any pictures of him before he went on the other side.

When I started trying to load my pictures into Lightroom and see what I had, I learned that my tablet wouldn't recognize the .CR3 files that are the raw shots from the Canon.  Remind me again to never travel without my laptop!  It was very difficult not knowing what I'm getting!  

Another person joined us in camp today, too.  She's from Hong Kong and will be guided by Yumchin.  She had been to see snow leopards before in the Altai Mountains, but wanted to get closer looks.  Apparently, the Margaz Mountains (where we are) are a much better place to see them than the Altai are, which is what Bina had told me when we decided to make the itinerary flexible.  

It was a very good sign that on our first day out, we saw cats!  An awesome start!