Spotting The Spotted ( This Time Its SNOW LEOPARD)

[Sucheth Lingachar]

Dream come true for me.. I never thought that spotting this Beauty is so tough, but really is a tough terrain to trek and along with that the Weather( -16 degrees to -20 degrees) ,High altitude(4200 mtrs above sea level) and climbing 60 degree inclination ufff thrilling and Chilling Experience.

For the First Half an hour i couldn't make out where is the leopard... when i first reached the place (ie mountain) from where we could see the snow leopard i fell on the ground and relaxed for 15min bcoz we trekked some 8 km from Rumbak Village to reach this place.. then when i saw through my camera nothing i am able to make out... after half an hour when it made little movement of the head then i spotted this Gray ghost.

We spotted this Gray Ghost in our last day of our trip felt very lucky.

Nikon D7100, Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/4D IF-ED + AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E II/14E
F/5.6, 1/640s, ISO 500. With Tripod.

[Saajan Jogia]

wow! habitat and rareness well captured. Thanks for sharing. Congrats on the sighting. Thanks for sharing :)

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Oh God! You are so kind to All of us.
Rare and lovely climbing pose. I see and absorb the beauty....... the raised left hind leg ..........and....... balancing act of the long long tail while positioning its paws on rocks. Nice capture. Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

P.S.:It reminds me of my trip to Dachigam N.P. during June 1983 and watching Hanguls standing in knee-deep chilled water.

[Debasis Bose]

Absolutely marvelous sighting, I can well imagine the excitement after the long strenuous fatiguing effort. Climbing gracefully not knowing that after this particular step the leopard will soon become the talk of Indiawilds. An interesting fact of snow leopards' tails is they not only help them to maintain their balance in rocky terrain, but they also are thick due to storage of fat for use during lean time and is thickly covered with fur, that allows them to be used as blanket to protect their face when asleep. As per latest count there are about 400 (200-600) odd snow leopard in the wild in India and about 5000-6000 worldwide.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Super. It blends so well one has to search for it even in the frame. Well done sucheth..
TFS
Roopak

[Abhishek Mallick]

It must have been a life time experience..

Thanks a lot for sharing it :)

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Lovely sighting. Truly blessed to sight this leopard. I hope you must have also photographed many birds, please do share them. I understand the thrill of sighting the leopard must have super seeded all other thoughts :). Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

WoW!

Am in the field with limited connectivity, working on the Leopard documentary. Its a struggle to get decent footage of leopard despite enduring all night winter chill. And here I see a snow leopard image. It gives me so much of joy to see this amazing feline. You are blessed Sucheth! I have lost all numbers. Sms me your and Hymakar's number. I would love to hear it directly.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Sucheth Lingachar]

Thank you Sabyasachi Patra.....
Here is my No. : 9886049987

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Must have been an amazing experience! Enjoyed every bit of the description and the images, first from Hymakar and then from you. I think, for those of us who have no experience of sighting this cat, we would miss it completely even if it were present in our direct field of view :).

TFS