Snow Leopards - the search is over!

28th March 2011

Exodus' Valerie Parkinson reporting from the snow leopard country...

"Fantastic trip which started off well with a day at Matho festival where the state oracles of Ladakh appeared and told the future of Ladakh.

Then we all enjoyed days in the Rumbak valley tracking snow leopards. Within the fist half hour we saw 4 Ladakhi Urial and a Lammageier.

On the 19 March we left Leh for Husing, a remote valley near Rumbak and a well known snow leopard corridor. For 3 days we followed tracks and scat of snow leopard and on the 22 March we had 2 sightings of a Snow Leopard in the Tarbuns Valley. Three of the group saw it first time it appeared and 2 the second time - all through a spotting scope.

We saw many snow leopard prints and scat and the night cameras the wildlife guides set up caught photos of the snow leopards very close to our camp.

We also saw lots of Blue Sheep, Argali Sheep, Fox, Wooly Hare, Golden Eagles, Lammageiers, Himalayan Griffen Vultures ad the VERY rare Eagle Owl being chased by a Golden Eagle.

We were very privileged to have Khenrab Phuntsog as our wildlife guide, a very inspiring young Ladakhi as well as Smanla. Both work for the wildlife department and made every effort to ensure we saw as much as possible. Khenra was out before sunrise with his spotting scope scanning the hillsides and we spent our days tracking snow leopard prints on foot in the Husing and Tarbuns Valley."

Snow Leopards are one of the world's most elusive mammals but in winter they descend from the high Himalayan peaks in search of food. This beautiful, enigmatic cat inhabits some of the most remote and mountainous regions of Central Asia. Our adventurous trip takes us into the far north western part of India, to Ladakh (or Little Tibet).