Notes From the Field

Field Notes, Winter, 2003-2004

Rinchen and volunteer Barb Palmer setting camera traps.

From Field Volunteer Barbara Palmer:

February 15th 2004

It’s been 18 years since I worked with my first snow leopards, a breeding pair at the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust (on the island of Jersey, off the coast of France) while I was in the early stages of training in Endangered Species Management. I’ve come so far since then, and it is such a reward to be in Ladakh for the second season surrounded by the presence of wild snow leopards. Things are well under way in this year’s census in Hemis National Park, and it is nice to be back in familiar places and great to be working with the people I met and worked with here last year.

Arriving in India, I was held in Delhi for several days because of the snow falling in Leh. The clouds cleared just enough on the third day to allow flights, and made for a beautiful scene flying over the Himalaya as the peaks were touched by the early morning sun. Spring is trying to come early to this part of the Himalaya, but relative to home, it’s far from warm. We’ve been rewarded with both snow and sunshine, much snow leopard sign, sign from other carnivores such as wolf and fox, many blue sheep sightings, and since my arrival one good snow leopard sighting by Jigmet.

From left: Tashi Lundup, Steve Winter, Barb Palmer, Jigmet Dadul, relaxing in the kitchen tent after a hard, cold day of work.

With me from San Francisco, I brought several recordings of the mating calls of the snow leopards in my care at San Francisco Zoo. All three of San Francisco Zoo’s snow leopards are currently “single” (12-year-old Ming Wah and her young adult male and female cubs), and have been vocally “advertising for a mate” since mid December, the beginning of their mating season. February is peak mating season for most snow leopards, and while Ming Wah is still likely looking for a mate in the Bay Area, her voice is being used here in Ladakh to help identify snow leopards in the study area.

I’m looking forward to spending nearly another month here working with and learning from the SLC staff while hoping to sight a snow leopard myself in the process. It’s cold and hard work and the staff here deserve a lot of credit. It’s been nearly 3 weeks since I’ve had a real shower, and I’ve endured stomach illness as well while at camp... but it’s still worth it!

March 11

Every day in camp told us a new segment in the story about Hemis’s community of Himalayan wildlife. Some evenings we heard snow leopard mating calls coming from far up a valley or on top of a high ridge, and within a day or two we often saw the sign they left behind and could piece together information about where they had come from, where they were heading, how large they were (which often tells us their sex), and other details. I had been 20 days at camp and hadn’t glimpsed a snow leopard, though. This is not surprising, as snow leopards in their natural surroundings are nearly invisible to humans, but I was worried that I might not see one at all.

Luck was on my side though, and a snow leopard was sighted early on the morning of the 23rd of February heading up a ridge above camp towards a herd of blue sheep. My whole body went numb with cold as we all watched breathlessly through binoculars and scopes to see if we would actually witness a kill, but around nine a.m. he or she vanished over the ridge above the blue sheep. Events seem to happen in cycles, and around five p.m. on the 24th, on another ridge, another snow leopard was spotted! We all strained our eyes to watch it on the high horizon in the cold evening twilight. Just as darkness fell, it headed straight down an incredibly steep rocky cliff and vanished from our sight.

Despite the incredible harshness of this alpine desert, it is ever apparent that you are surrounded by wildlife. One evening we heard a Tibetan wolf calling, and many nights we heard the rocks falling below grazing blue sheep. Wolf tracks were frequently seen on the frozen rivers in the upper valleys, and three white wolves were even spotted from camp mid-day on a high ridge on February 25th. Unfortunately I was away all that day checking cameras in Yurutse (One of the upper valleys with all of the wolf tracks)! A pair of eagle owls could often be heard hooting just as night fell in the canyon above camp as well.

The evening before we broke camp, we were already huddled in the kitchen tent warming up with some hot tea when we heard a clear and powerful snow leopard call. We all lept up and ran outside to look. The light was nearly gone, but the cat called again. The keen eyes of Tashi, the camp cook spotted this snow leopard on another ridge looking down in to the Husing Valley. It was so exciting and rewarding to hear and see another snow leopard just before leaving, and though I was beginning to fantasize about the warm bucket-bath awaiting me in Leh the next evening, I was sad to be soon removing the camp and leaving the great valley surrounded by wildlife and bright stars.

snow leopards in their
natural surroundings are nearly invisible to humans

We made day-trips out from Leh to check the cameras two more times over the next 10 days. The days were getting warmer, the Indus was nearly ice-free, and the smaller rivers in the higher valleys were beginning to melt. Water could be heard running under the thick layer of ice on the surface. On the 10th of March, the last day that I returned to check cameras, we were greeted not with spring warmth but with another Ladakhi sign of spring: icy winds. The spring winds in Ladakh make the ridges unbearable, funneling down one valley and up another. The open country on the way back to Leh near the Indus river becomes one big dust storm enhanced by the rough dirt road we must drive. We arrived in Leh – looking like dusty bandits with our faces covered for fresher air – just as darkness fell over the valley. Cold, dirty and tired, we set about preparing film and records for my departure at dawn the next morning. I guess there has to be something to make you want to head home... but it wasn’t only warmth and a hot shower I was looking forward to. The suspense of having to wait several months to know exactly what our carefully tended field cameras have captured is the driving force that sends me and the exposed film straight back!

Wind-driven clouds over Stok La, seen from Leh town – photo by Barbara Palmer.

Reporting from our camp in Hemis,
in a valley higher than most mountains in the U.S. –
SLC Volunteer, Barb Palmer.

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