Students track snow leopards

Published 9:00 pm Friday, September 1, 2006

Near the spectacular Altai Mountains in Central Asia, high on the steppes, James Clements, 15, and Kindra McCall, 17, spent two weeks this summer helping scientists study the endangered snow leopard and its prey, such as the endangered Altai argali (a mountain sheep) and the Altai ibex.

The Kamiak High School students worked with other volunteers and scientists on the Biosphere Expeditions outing.

“It took us 22 hours to fly to where we were going, just air time, (and) we drove for two days, 1,200 kilometers (746 miles),” James said.

Their study site was on the steppes of Russia near the Mongolian border. It’s an unpreserved corridor where little is known about snow leopards’ movements.

They worked from a 7,200-foot base camp near a mountain range, living expedition-style in small tents and a borrowed yurt. The altitude was high enough to pose a challenge when hiking but not high enough to cause altitude sickness.

“We would go on these long hikes … walking through the fields looking for signs of snow leopards and their prey. We were looking for scat, or scrapings or anything that showed that animals been there recently,” James said.

“If we saw some sign, then we’d notify a scientist and have it checked out. We found a lot of signs of everything but snow leopards. But we learned that there were a huge amount of prey species there for them,” he said.

Sometimes prey isn’t enough. Snow leopards have been hunted in that area for their valuable pelts, James said. “Eight years ago, there were eight snow leopards in the area … at least six have died.”

The wildlife population was relatively sparse in the rugged environment. Kindra saw ground squirrels, a few horses, and kites circling in the air waiting for an unsuspecting ground squirrel, ibex, rabbit or arctic fox.

While there was precious little rain falling in the Northwest this summer, the survey expedition had plenty.

“You could see the weather coming – this black wall coming toward you – and that would be the rainstorm. It would rain a few hours, then clear up. It could be 60 degrees, nice and warm, then it would start snowing out of nowhere.” James said.

With a translator to help with the language barrier, the volunteers were able to visit some of the Mongolian families in their yurts.

The people living on the steppes during the summer are mostly herders taking care of herds of perhaps 1,000 goats and sheep plus a few cows and horses. In the winter they move to China where it is not as harsh and they can send their children to school, Kindra said.

“They’d invite us inside and give us tea and bread and cookies,” Kindra said. “Lots of their possessions look a lot like an American garage sale … Yankees baseball caps, little clocks with cats on them, collected over the years.

“They weave their own blankets and quilts. They’re beautifully done and hanging over the walls. (They make) beautifully done boxes. They’re good artisans. It’s a mix of cultures in the yurts,” she said. “Mostly we talked about where it would be nice to have (the scientists) set up during the winter (when) it gets freezing cold. Even the natives move out of the area then.”

James, who is planning to be an aerospace engineer, had to do a sales job on Kindra, who is considering working in animation, to get her to join the adventure.

“It took some convincing once I heard there was no running water … it sounded a bit rustic for my taste,” Kindra said.

A little roughing it was worth the experience.

Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.