It will take patience, focus-and yes, love-to dedicate a lifetime learning more about this little-understood creature. It will take practice and experience to lay humane leghold snares, collect scat samples, and set up motion-triggered cameras. It will take endurance and persistence to climb the dusty mountain trails, hope of a snow leopard sighting rising and falling with each new summit. And it doesn't stop Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop from packing their bags in order to join Tom on a trek to Mongolia, where they hope to learn more about this magical cat, a cat who doesn't give up its secrets easily. Slinking along the Mongolian mountain ridges, the snow leopards are invisible-and almost impossible to study.īut that doesn't deter scientist Tom McCarthy, Conservation Director of the Seattle-based Snow Leopard Trust, or his many colleagues from dedicating their lives' work to the study and protection of this seldom-seen creature. A thick, long tail for balance helps snow leopards spring at their prey from great distances-prey that is often three times its own size. Beautiful spotted coats conceal these elusive cats in their rocky, high-altitude habitat-a place where temperatures are often cold enough to freeze human tears. People call it The Ghost of the Mountain, for those who live among snow leopards almost never see one.
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