It will take patience, focusand yes, loveto dedicate a lifetime learning more about this little-understood creature. It will take practice and experience to lay humane leghold snares, collect scat samples, and set up motion-triggered cameras. It will take endurance and persistence to climb the dusty mountain trails, hope of a snow leopard sighting rising and falling with each new summit. And it doesn’t stop Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop from packing their bags in order to join Tom on a trek to Mongolia, where they hope to learn more about this magical cat, a cat who doesn’t give up its secrets easily. But that doesn’t deter scientist Tom McCarthy, Conservation Director of the Seattle-based Snow Leopard Trust, or his many colleagues from dedicating their lives’ work to the study and protection of this seldom-seen creature. Slinking along the Mongolian mountain ridges, the snow leopards are invisibleand almost impossible to study. A thick, long tail for balance helps snow leopards spring at their prey from great distancesprey that is often three times its own size. Beautiful spotted coats conceal these elusive cats in their rocky, high-altitude habitata place where temperatures are often cold enough to freeze human tears. People call it The Ghost of the Mountain,” for those who live among snow leopards almost never see one.
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