At the Movies   / Big Cats

Searching for the Snow Leopard

Comments: This has been eclipsed by Planet Earth and Snow Leopard: Beyond the Myth

Summary: Most big cats do their best to remain hidden from human eyes, but none are quite as adept at this as the snow leopard. These cats lead largely solitary lives, populating the Himalayas at altitudes that offer only about half the oxygen to which humans are accustomed. So when wildlife filmmakers Hugh Miles and Mitchell Kelly set out to film this animal they knew they were in for a challenge.

The filmmakers chose Hemis National Park in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir as their base camp. There they selected a team of native mountaineers and trackers to accompany them into the Himalayas. The team climbed as high as 15,000 feet, tracking the cats via paw prints in the snow and the scented urine that snow leopards use to mark their territory. The group also concealed remote, sensor-activated cameras equipped with infrared light to allow for stealth, night observation of the cats.