When the snow leopard sprang into action, Donglin assumed it was in pursuit of a marmot, not seeing, at first, the Pallas’s cat that ‘blended in so well with the rocks’. The little cat fled, but its short legs were no match for the muscular snow leopard, its long, thick tail helping it balance as it ran down the slope. In less than a minute, the snow leopard had its prey in its jaws, and proceeded to carry it back to its den.

Both species are very well camouflaged and extremely hard to spot. While large birds of prey and wolves are known to hunt Pallas’s cats, it’s rare to see them hunted by snow leopards.

Donglin understood the young leopard’s need to hunt but was heartbroken at the loss of the Pallas’s cat. She explains, ‘the cat had three two-month-old kittens, not yet independent, hidden in an empty marmot’s burrow nearby’.

After discussions with the guide and forest rangers, Donglin obtained permission from the local government for road-killed pikas to be left near the den. Three weeks later, the kittens were hunting by themselves, and not long after, two of them were seen with their aunt and its litter of five. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/wpy/gallery/2023-race-for-life