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!