Summertime Quest for the Snow Leopard in Ladakh, India: Land of the Snow Leopard and Traditional Life in an Ancient Buddhist Culture
Imagine hiking through the Himalaya in the tracks of a wild snow leopard, knowing that your being there will help save the snow leopard from retaliatory killing and will help local families send their children to better schools. Imagine staying in a traditional family-run “Himalayan Homestay,” riding camels at 10,000 ft and attending a lively Buddhist ritual dance festival. All of this is possible on the Summertime Quest for the Snow Leopard.
Informed by the Snow Leopard Conservancy’s decades of conservation action in Ladakh, you’ll explore sites within Hemis National Park that are regularly visited by the elusive cats that leave their “sign” (such as tracks, scent, and other markers). Sightings of blue sheep and urial, two of the snow leopard’s prey species, are virtually guaranteed. If you’re very lucky you will see a snow leopard too, although they normally descend from the ridge-tops only after the first snows.