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I've spent much of my working life
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trying to film big cats.
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I've watched them in the wild and analyzed the footage
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in the editing room, which has given me
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a real insight into their behavior.
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Today we can see these amazing predators
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on our screens anytime we choose.
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(dramatic music)
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But until quite recently,
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we knew practically nothing about them.
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(exciting music)
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Big cats are normally shy and very secretive.
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Today their populations are shrinking fast.
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But now we have the means to view them
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in more detail than ever.
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(exciting music)
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And learn the intricacies of their lives.
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(exciting music)
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Which is just as well,
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because we need to find ways of living along side them
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before they disappear forever.
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(wind blowing)
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There is a cat so rare and which lives
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in places so remote and wild that the rest
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of the world barely knew it existed until recently.
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It is the snow leopard.
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(slow suspenseful music)
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Often referred to as the gray ghost,
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or ghost of the mountains,
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this animal's rarity and elusiveness was legendary.
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In the past, it was known as the ounce,
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but today we've settled on the name snow leopard.
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However, it's quite different to the leopard
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and in fact, is more closely related to the tiger.
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(slow suspenseful music)
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The snow leopard wears a luxuriant coat which is so thick,
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it conceals a surprisingly long-legged and lithe animal.
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It has a strangely heavy brow, unlike any other cat,
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along with a gigantic tail weighted with fat.
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(wind blowing)
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But like all the other big cats,
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it feeds on animals that are,
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more often than not, larger than itself.
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(snow leopard eating)
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While the snow leopard has long been known to science,
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images of wild snow leopards
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have only recently become possible.
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This is partly because of new technology,
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but mostly because increasingly,
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snow leopards allow us to see them.
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(wind howling)
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The places where snow leopards live
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are almost always remote, barely inhabited by people,
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cold, down to minus 40 in the winter.
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Yet, extreme altitude, extreme cold,
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and extremely rugged landscapes don't seem
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to bother this cat at all.
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It's really hard to imagine how anything lives here.
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(wind howling)
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But as I discovered while making this film,
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it does so with some of the most extraordinary behavior
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I've ever seen.
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The snow leopard may be the world's smallest big cat,
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but I can safely say it is the toughest.
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(wind howling)
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In this sparse environment,
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one of the snow leopards biggest challenges
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is meeting another of the opposite sex.
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(snow leopard vocalizes)
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My biggest challenge was just to find such
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a perfectly camouflaged animal in this daunting landscape.
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(wind howling)
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Snow leopards are found across most of
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the high mountains and plateau of Central Asia.
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They have the narrowest distribution of all the big cats.
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We don't even know how many there are,
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but it's thought there may be
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as few as 3,500 still in existence.
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(calming music)
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In the maze of peaks and gullies they normally inhabit,
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snow leopards are mostly invisible to humans.
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These are Tost Mountains
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on the edge of Mongolia's Gobi desert.
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(calming music)
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It's dry and very cold, minus 40 in the winter.
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(calming music)
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This population of snow leopards
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is one of the best studies in the world.
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But we've really only just begun
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to gather scientific knowledge about snow leopards.
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(wind rustling)
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Much of their lives is still a mystery.
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I started working with snow leopards in 2008,
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so it's been nine years now.
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Since you can't really see the snow leopards,
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they're so very well camouflaged
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and in these mountains, you can't follow them.
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The only way to collect solid data is
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to fit some sort of a tracking device
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to a number of individuals.
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The GPS collars we use have gathered
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a tremendous amount of information
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and painted a new picture of what a snow leopard is
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compared to what we thought back in 2008.
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Orjan's data reveal
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that snow leopards travel more widely than anybody thought.
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So for us, finding one is going to be difficult.
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By watching the local wildlife,
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we can get an idea of where a cat might be.
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This is lammergeier, or bearded vulture.
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The Asian range of this giant scavenger overlaps
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that of the snow leopard almost exactly.
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It's presence here suggests there could be a big cat nearby.
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(slow suspenseful tune)
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The cinereous vulture,
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the second largest of all vultures, is here too.
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As morning sunlight hits the peaks,
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warm air begins to rise.
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(slow suspenseful tune)
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These huge vultures use their three meter wingspans
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on thermals to carry them over the mountains,
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and their high resolution vision
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to notice the tiniest details,
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such a snow leopard kills far below.
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(slow suspenseful tune)
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The golden eagle is another camp follower,
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often scavenging more than it hunts.
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All these birds depend to a great
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or a lesser extent on snow leopards.
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The fact that they're here at all and in the air,
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is a sign that perhaps there is a cat nearby.
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(wind blowing)
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Observing the prey of snow leopards can be helpful too.
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(dramatic music)
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These are wild sheep called argali.
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(dramatic music)
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They look nervous.
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(dramatic music)
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These are Siberian ibex.
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(dramatic music)
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These wild goats are extremely sharp-eyed and suspicious.
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The ibex are also very agile and sure-footed.
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Any predator that could actually catch one of these
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in this landscape would need some extraordinary abilities
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and nerves of steel.
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The mature males are more than twice
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the weight of a snow leopard, and they're strong.
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Yet studies show that snow leopards hunt
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even the largest males.
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(ibex horns smash together)
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(rocks tumbling)
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When I started this project,
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I'd never seen a snow leopard myself.
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But we now know for sure that
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the Tost Mountains are home to some 15 or so.
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Looking out for signs of their presence,
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the usual suspects were apparent
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and also the remains of a kill, just a leg.
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Watching us long before we spotted her,
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a female snow leopard, half a kilometer away.
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My first ever.
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Rather obviously stuffed with ibex.
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(soft music)
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For us, daylight sightings were rare and mostly fleeting,
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and frequently too distant to get good pictures.
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We'd found the best time
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to see snow leopards was dawn or dusk.
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But even these distant glimpses of such
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a rare, elusive animal were a delight.
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(soft music)
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Orjan's studies show that here,
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snow leopards do feed mainly on ibex
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and that they are active mostly at night.
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(wind rustling)
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The cats watch the wild goats moving
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from their daytime grazing areas
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to nighttime sleeping spots.
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The sure-footedness of the ibex
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on these almost vertical cliffs is impressive.
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(rocks rustling)
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(goats bleating)
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There's one more kind of goats in these mountains,
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slower and less nimble than the ibex,
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the domesticated cashmere goat.
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These animals could be a tempting substitute
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for the evasive ibex.
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The secretive snow leopard is not above
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a bit of goat rustling, but even so,
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few people ever see the cats.
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Hence their other name, ghost of the mountain.
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Because of snow leopards and wolves,
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the goats can't be left on the mountain at night.
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They spend the hours of darkness
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in the relative safety of the ger.
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The previous night a snow leopard took a goat,
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decapitated it, and took the head away.
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The herder thinks it could come back tonight.
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(soft music)
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No one's ever filmed a snow leopard at night before,
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so this is a bit of an experiment.
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To help us, we have a thermal camera.
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Even at minus 20, it gives a clear view of everything.
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(soft tune)
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The super sensitive starlight camera reveals
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a sky with no trace of distant city lights.
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We can use infrared light, which only the camera can see,
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it's invisible to the animals.
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But we don't need to hear special equipment
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to hear dogs barking.
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(dogs barking)
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Soon there's a glint of eye shine.
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It's a fox, another follower of the snow leopard.
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One of the dogs checks the herd,
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but they all continue to bark
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as if something is out there.
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Neither of the night cameras reveal
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anything apart from the fox.
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(dogs barking)
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Suddenly, on a distant ridge,
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two eyes are watching us.
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It's a snow leopard.
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(dogs barking in the distance)
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Is that what's making the dogs bark?
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How could they have possibly have detected
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it at half a kilometer away?
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(dogs barking in the distance)
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(wind blowing)
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The snow leopard doesn't appear concerned.
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(wind blowing)
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Nor do the goats.
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(suspenseful music)
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It's coming towards us.
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(suspenseful music)
(dogs barking)
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As the snow leopard reappears,
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it's looking directly at us.
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The light from our camera monitors is a giveaway.
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(suspenseful music)
(dogs barking)
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The cat appears confident that it can't be seen
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and studies the situation.
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(suspenseful music)
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The fact that it is completely aware of us and the dogs,
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yet still proceeds, is fascinating.
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(dogs barking)
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Perhaps it knows the dogs can't see it.
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(suspenseful music)
(dogs barking)
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There it is again, much closer now.
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(suspenseful music)
(dogs barking)
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Is it trying to get to the dead goat?
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Almost as if it has a plan,
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it moves silently into the gully.
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(goats bleat)
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Then the barking stops.
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Do the dogs think the snow leopard's gone now?
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(suspenseful music)
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Incredibly, the snow leopard managed
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to kill a kid out of view of us or the dogs.
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It fed quickly and was long gone before anyone realized.
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So the snow leopard turns out to be cunning as well.
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They're not called ghost of the mountain for nothing.
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It's not a big loss for the herder,
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but opinion is divided over what
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to do about snow leopards.
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Of course, this was revealing,
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but it didn't tell me much about
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how the snow leopard's hunt ibex.
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So the next night we moved 20 miles to where
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a snow leopard had been sited recently.
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Once the moon sets, the ibex seem to change their behavior.
269
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(suspenseful music)
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These appear to be heading for a sheer cliff.
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(suspenseful music)
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There they sit down and stay quiet.
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Sensible behavior on a cliff face when there's no moon.
274
00:18:17,191 --> 00:18:20,191
(suspenseful music)
275
00:18:24,890 --> 00:18:28,313
Amazingly, not far away is snow leopard.
276
00:18:30,243 --> 00:18:32,993
(rocks rustling)
277
00:18:39,470 --> 00:18:41,030
In the still night's air,
278
00:18:41,030 --> 00:18:44,033
the sound of scraping echoes from the canyon walls.
279
00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:48,733
Exactly the kind of sound that ibex attuned to hear.
280
00:18:50,030 --> 00:18:52,780
(rocks scraping)
281
00:18:56,010 --> 00:18:59,630
The snow leopard can't see the ibex, they're too far away.
282
00:18:59,630 --> 00:19:01,030
He won't even know they're there
283
00:19:01,030 --> 00:19:03,083
if they stay still and silent.
284
00:19:12,030 --> 00:19:13,593
He's marking his territory.
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00:19:15,110 --> 00:19:16,820
In typical cat fashion,
286
00:19:16,820 --> 00:19:21,050
he leaves a message of urine to warn males to stay away
287
00:19:21,050 --> 00:19:23,763
and to invite females to come and find him.
288
00:19:30,340 --> 00:19:32,560
Watching an interaction like that makes me wonder
289
00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:36,143
if that's why snow leopards sometimes target domestic goats.
290
00:19:40,620 --> 00:19:42,930
With no moon, it's just too dark
291
00:19:42,930 --> 00:19:45,173
to chase ibex around on these cliffs.
292
00:19:47,170 --> 00:19:49,870
Perhaps if the moon was up, things would be different.
293
00:19:51,488 --> 00:19:54,738
(wind faintly blowing)
294
00:19:56,950 --> 00:19:58,530
As the snow leopard walks around
295
00:19:58,530 --> 00:20:00,770
among these rocks in the pitch dark,
296
00:20:00,770 --> 00:20:03,283
he appears to be listening more than looking.
297
00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:08,003
His gait is slow and careful.
298
00:20:11,110 --> 00:20:13,003
But he shows little fear of falling.
299
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Perhaps the snow leopard's thick coat
300
00:20:16,870 --> 00:20:19,453
would cushion an impact should they slip.
301
00:20:25,940 --> 00:20:27,980
Maybe their heavy brow could offer protection
302
00:20:27,980 --> 00:20:30,513
to their eyes in the event of a tumble.
303
00:20:31,922 --> 00:20:34,255
(soft tune)
304
00:20:41,460 --> 00:20:42,880
The satellite tags show
305
00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:46,103
that snow leopards walk long distances, often at night,
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00:20:47,870 --> 00:20:51,383
navigating canyons and gullies with extreme care.
307
00:20:59,660 --> 00:21:01,411
But perhaps the most important thing revealed
308
00:21:01,411 --> 00:21:04,620
by the satellite data is that snow leopards
309
00:21:04,620 --> 00:21:07,763
need far more space than anyone realized.
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00:21:11,640 --> 00:21:14,850
Orjan's studies in Tost have shown that snow leopards
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00:21:14,850 --> 00:21:16,963
are far less solitary than we thought.
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00:21:18,580 --> 00:21:19,970
They scent, mark, and scrape
313
00:21:19,970 --> 00:21:22,073
more frequently than other cats.
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00:21:23,420 --> 00:21:26,421
They travel widely in search of company.
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00:21:26,421 --> 00:21:28,754
(soft tune)
316
00:21:41,740 --> 00:21:44,060
They sniff the messages of those before them
317
00:21:45,300 --> 00:21:47,483
and then leave their own calling cards.
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00:21:50,830 --> 00:21:53,320
We now know from satellite data that these cats
319
00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:56,453
also make long journeys between mountain ranges.
320
00:21:58,060 --> 00:22:00,630
In this way, snow leopards have colonized some of
321
00:22:00,630 --> 00:22:03,793
the most remote and harsh environments on Earth.
322
00:22:05,810 --> 00:22:07,610
But we still know little about them.
323
00:22:10,070 --> 00:22:13,370
However, the advent of tourism to these wild places
324
00:22:13,370 --> 00:22:16,370
gives an unexpected boost to our knowledge.
325
00:22:16,370 --> 00:22:20,000
More eyes and more cameras reveal rare behavior
326
00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:21,700
that has never been filmed before.
327
00:22:22,837 --> 00:22:25,837
(suspenseful music)
328
00:22:33,268 --> 00:22:36,268
(music intensifies)
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00:22:49,456 --> 00:22:52,289
(bodies thudding)
330
00:23:15,150 --> 00:23:18,063
Incredibly, they are both still alive.
331
00:23:19,500 --> 00:23:21,640
Only by watching it again is it possible
332
00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:24,793
to fully appreciate what actually happened.
333
00:23:24,793 --> 00:23:27,043
(thudding)
334
00:23:30,613 --> 00:23:32,360
(loud thud)
335
00:23:32,360 --> 00:23:35,536
The snow leopard only grabs the rear of the victim.
336
00:23:35,536 --> 00:23:37,930
(bodies thudding)
337
00:23:37,930 --> 00:23:39,613
But rights her body for impact.
338
00:23:41,310 --> 00:23:44,563
Using her heavy tail, she tries to control the situation.
339
00:23:46,790 --> 00:23:49,550
Only now, does she release her grip
340
00:23:49,550 --> 00:23:52,500
so that she can find the neck of the animal
341
00:23:52,500 --> 00:23:55,709
and clasp firmly with claws and teeth.
342
00:23:55,709 --> 00:23:59,350
(bodies thudding)
343
00:23:59,350 --> 00:24:02,313
Here, her brow ridges protect her eyes.
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00:24:05,860 --> 00:24:09,538
She rolls the dazed animal until she can get her foothold.
345
00:24:09,538 --> 00:24:11,690
(bodies thudding)
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00:24:11,690 --> 00:24:14,610
Events like this have been reported before,
347
00:24:14,610 --> 00:24:15,713
but never filmed.
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00:24:18,020 --> 00:24:20,410
The fact that at no point did the cat panic
349
00:24:20,410 --> 00:24:22,750
and let go suggests to me,
350
00:24:22,750 --> 00:24:24,813
this may even have been deliberate.
351
00:24:26,437 --> 00:24:28,854
(soft music)
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00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:31,960
Three days later, her she is returning
353
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:35,835
to her frozen kill seemingly uninjured.
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00:24:35,835 --> 00:24:38,252
(soft music)
355
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:50,743
The snow leopard may not really be a ghost,
356
00:24:52,470 --> 00:24:55,290
but it does have seemingly supernatural powers
357
00:24:56,220 --> 00:24:58,479
far beyond our comprehension.
358
00:24:58,479 --> 00:25:00,896
(soft music)
359
00:25:03,590 --> 00:25:05,930
Almost everything we find is new
360
00:25:05,930 --> 00:25:07,340
and people are excited about it.
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00:25:07,340 --> 00:25:08,470
I am exited about it.
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00:25:08,470 --> 00:25:09,618
It's a rare treat to get
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00:25:09,618 --> 00:25:12,580
this opportunity for scientists today,
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00:25:12,580 --> 00:25:14,790
because not even the local people know much and
365
00:25:14,790 --> 00:25:17,083
a lot of the knowledge is really myths.
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00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:42,157
(inspiring music)
27303
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