Notes From the Field -- (Part Two)

The road into the study area.

Notes From the Field

Part Two

Base Camp, 26th Jan:

I am sitting in our office tent finishing this update, a weak sun just keeping my computer above freezing. All but three camera traps are in place, and I’m ready for Barbara Palmer and Jerry Roe to arrive, so that I can turn my attention to other matters, including the upcoming Snow Leopard Network meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

I shouldn’t forget a mention of my 60th birthday, celebrated a day late on the 20th. Tashi baked a huge cake in an aluminum pot, and decorated it with sugary greetings and a single overly large candle. Hugh, producer of the documentary being filmed here, supplied 12 year old Scottish whiskey, and the entire camera crew (foreign and Ladakhi) crowded into our tent for the celebration meal and singing “Happee Birthdayee to youuuu Rhoodney...” Great fun!

I confess that the other day for the first time I put a chemical hand-warmer, brought last winter by Jerry or Barb, in one of my gloves. Wow - it felt great! I was glad they’d left some behind, and hoped they’d remember to bring more. I have to say the hardest part of winter fieldwork in Ladakh is getting out of my sleeping bag in the morning, an act (even at 20 degrees below) that is probably easier then enduring the Bay Area commutes... So overall, I feel very lucky to be doing this work, for the chance to blend scientific knowledge with local traditional knowledge as a strategy for securing a more certain and long-lasting future for this (real) Ghost Cat.

So far we’ve had a single actual snow leopard sighting, on the massif above camp, on the day Rinchen, Jigmet and I were off in the high country following wolves. But we expect more in February than January, like last year, so I am hopeful for many opportunities for informative observations. There is some possibility that cat travel will be down this year, as the two males seem to have sorted out their differences on who owns which piece of real-estate. And to date no mating vocalizations have been reported by the locals, although the peak of the breeding season is almost upon us.

I hope that Barb’s recorded calls from the San Francisco Zoo leopards will work their Valentine magic, calling the cats from high down into the canyons where the cameras lie ready to flash them by! Hopefully, the Hemis leopards will accept this illlusion, and not demand the real thing from California.

One other bit of good news is that we saw the tracks of a female and her two 18 month (estimated) cubs in a valley a day’s walk from here. Doug Allan, the well-known Scottish “underwater cameraman” is there, as I write, searching for them. Sure hope he has equal luck on land as he’s had searching for walruses and seals below the Artic pack ice.

One final note before I leave for Leh to send this message. We are collaborating with Sandeep Sharma, an Indian scientist, and the International Snow Leopard Trust, to determine if it is possible to distinguish individual snow leopards from their pugmarks. Sandeep reported this to be possible with tigers, but their footprints are so much bigger than snow leopards’, and furthermore the tracking medium is much more amenable to providing precise imprints, being sand and sand and sand, not just rock, gravel and pebbles with some sand here and there. Also, snow leopards, unlike tigers, are always walking up and down these steep mountainsides, stepping irregularly to avoid rocks and the like, making it so much harder to even distinguish forefoot from hind foot, let alone left from right side. All this in addition to the rigors of living in the mountains, and so Sandeep from the plains certainly has a major challenge facing him. But he seems to have a lot of determination, which is vital to this work. It is this kind of mentoring that I value and so enjoy doing. Sandeep and his partner will be here two months, staying in their dome tent pitched beneath a parachute – as Sandeep noted, for added warmth, a clever innovation!

We expect to operate our camp for at least another month, and then move to another area to see how many cats we can identify in a 3-4 week period before spring arrives. At that time the disturbances will increase, as herders begin to move their livestock back up into the high summer pastures, and the tourists will arrive, eager to experience the stark beauty of the ochre and reddish mountains, and the unmatched hospitality and richness of the Ladakhi culture. For those adventurers among you, I urge a Himalayan Homestay in the land of the snow leopard.

Jullay and thanks to all for your support, from Rinchen, Jigmet, Tashi, and me, and the nature guides and people of Rumbak.

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