Saving the Ghost of the Mountain by Sy Montgomery

“How could we not see that cat?” Tom asked his partner. “The whole time,” said Tom, “both of us were watching through binoculars and spotting scope. He crossed the little valley and turned a corner. The changing pitch and volume of the radio telemetry told them what the cat was doing: He walked across the barren hillside. They are nearly impossible to study.įor many minutes, the men watched, seeing nothing. Even today, almost nothing is known about them. Snow leopards are so hard to see, so difficult to find, that they were once believed to be part flesh, part phantom. Again, the men scanned with their scopes. “Oh, we’re going to see him now!” Tom thought. Standing still, his spotted coat blending into the stony background, the snow leopard was as invisible as a spirit. On that day on the ridge, the scientists knew Blue was right in front of them. Prowling along ridges, slinking below skyline, it’s as invisible, yet as powerful, as the wind. It can bring down an animal three times its size. With a long, thick tail for balance, a snow leopard can spring at its prey from 30 feet. They thrive in temperatures cold enough to freeze human tears. Snow leopards can live at altitudes too high for trees-sometimes in places with only half the oxygen people need to breathe easily. They survive in some of the harshest, most remote, most extreme habitats in the world. Like ghosts, they seem to have almost supernatural powers. Snow leopards are as tough as they are beautiful. People live their whole lives in snow leopard country and never see one. People call it “The Ghost of the Mountain.” A pale, spotted, almost cloud-like coat makes the snow leopard uncannily invisible. What luck! Now was their chance to spot the animal to which Tom had dedicated his career-the most elusive cat on the planet. “We knew exactly where he was from the signal,” Tom said, “and it was a completely barren hillside.” There was nothing to block the view. The scientist’s heart pounded with excitement. Along with the collar, Tom had also given the cat blue tags in both ears so that Tom could recognize him. Photography by Nic BishopTom called the leopard Blue. Tom McCarthy, the blue-eyed, bearded Conservation Director of the Seattle-based Snow Leopard Trust, had attached the transmitter to a collar around the neck of a big male snow leopard whom he’d captured and released a year earlier.

The sound was coming from a radio transmitter. Their receiver antenna had picked up a signal from across the narrow valley: Ping. The two scientists sat on a ridge, binoculars and spotting scope in hand.

Saving the Ghost of the Mountain by Sy Montgomery