RFI – Snow Leopard Best Location (and best combination)
Hi all,
As I guess many can relate with, snow leopard is very high on my bucket list, and I hope to go look for it in April (or the beginning of May) 2027.
I went over many reports and I am having a really hard time figuring out which is the best option for seeing a snow leopard.
From what I could figure, the top candidates were China and India, and I hope someone here who’s been in both places can shed some light on the difference between the two locations – where do you see more often snow leopards, where are the observations usually more up close, where you can do it in less time or any other factor that you think is relevant
On the same topic – right now I lean more towards China (though it can obviously change based on the responses here).
If I will go to China, I plan to combine this with looking for giant pandas. I saw many reports regarding Royle Safari’s Sichuan tours, but it is both outside of my budget and its exact dates are not working for me. I was wondering if anyone here has a recommendation for a local tour operator that is excellent and can lead both the snow leopards and giant pandas sections, and that might be a bit cheaper.
Thanks a lot in advance!
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8 Comments
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Miles Foster
Hi, David,
for China / Sichuan I would strongly recommend Sid Francis of Sichuan Birding: chengduuk@hotmail.com / https://sichuanbirding.cloudaccess.net/. He’s a thoroughly nice guy and knows his stuff, lives in Sichuan and has been running local tours now for over 15 years. He leads bespoke snow leopard and panda tours and might even be able to find you brown or black bears with luck. By the way, the snow leopards he will take you to are in former Tibetan territory, still overwhelmingly Tibetan at least outside the larger towns.
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Pieter de Groot Boersma
Hi David,
I’m currently looking for people to join me on a winter trip to China for the Snow Leopard, Pallas’s Cat, Eurasian Lynx and Chinese Mountain Cat. We are with two now with others still considering to join. According to this trip report of Jon himself maybe the best place in the world to look for Snow Leopard? https://www.mammalwatching.com/community-post/qinghais-gouli-valley-qilian-mountains-and-xining-china2026/
I made contact with Shuyi, recommended tour operator by Jon Hall.
The primary advantage of visiting Menyuan and Dulan in February is that animals are highly active due to foraging needs.
In the harsh winter, prey species gather at lower elevations or near unfrozen water sources, which in turn forces elusive cats like Pallas’s Cat, Snow Leopard, Lynx, and Chinese Mountain Cat to be more active during daylight hours to hunt.
However, this comes with the challenge of extreme cold and difficult travel conditions.
If possibly interested, let me know!
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Jon Hall
The Goulli valley for snow leopards wil be the easiest and cheapest trip. You probably need 2 or 3 days there to see them. See my recent report. For Pandas then Sid is your best bet I think. Or try China Mammal Tour https://www.mammalwatching.com/trip-provider/china-mammal-tour/
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Antoine Rabussier
I will speak for India, as I cannot compare with China with an extract of my report to come :
Two regions are particularly well known for snow leopards:
• Ladakh is the most famous among international travellers. It offers spectacular landscapes, relatively good infrastructure and comfortable homestays, and is fairly easy to access. Local spotters are very efficient at locating leopards in the valleys around Hemis National Park. However, one must bear in mind that most sightings occur at distances of over one kilometre, and the animal can only be seen through a scope, not even binoculars.
• Spiti Valley or Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary in Himachal Pradesh is much more remote and less comfortable, but also offers closer sightings, as the valleys are narrower than in Ladakh. Most Indian wildlife watchers, who are mainly photographers, tend to favour Spiti over Ladakh for this reason.
I considered both options and neither seemed cheaper than the other. As I was travelling with my wife, who is neither particularly enthusiastic about animals nor tolerant of the cold (to put it mildly), this ruled out Spiti. Ladakh offered more cultural interest and greater landscape diversity.
I was discouraged by the quotes provided by the various agencies I had contacted and initially thought I would simply go to Ladakh and see how things unfolded. The snow leopard was only the icing on the cake, as I also wanted to enjoy the landscapes and the animal life of this region, so different from the rest of India.
Completely by chance, while browsing Google Maps, I came across Mingyur (+91 97975 06493), who had recently started his agency Panthera Expeditions. I found little information about his agency, but no negative feedback, and above all, his quote — which appeared serious — was significantly cheaper than the others. Without wanting to speak poorly of anyone, he seemed to understand that he was not dealing with a wealthy Western client looking for a comfortable snow leopard experience with top-tier Swarovski scopes, but rather for a trip combining both cultural and naturalist aspects, where birds and other mammals would also have their place, and where comfort was not the main priority.
In general, most sightings also seem to result from information shared by spotters with the entire community of guides. The guide’s observational skills are therefore important, but perhaps not as much as the extent of their local network and the quality of their relationships with local communities.
From reading various reports, I understood that sightings can vary from fairly regular to exceptional depending on the year and the location, and that no particular area consistently stands out as being better than others over multiple seasons. I therefore became convinced that the best approach was to remain flexible depending on recent successes and sightings reported in different valleys. We had a prearranged plan focusing on the Ulley valley, with alternative options prepared depending on how things unfolded.
We stayed with local families, in conditions that were entirely reasonable considering the price and the environment. The food was excellent and very comforting, and the rooms were heated with stoves fuelled by kerosene and dried yak dung, which proved very effective. -
AntenneZoo
I comment to follow,
Because I plan to go back to Nepal next february and I am thinking to add an other asiatic country to my trip.
And the possibility to see snow leopards is of course very seducing.I know that Nepal hosts a good population of snow leopards but I haven’t seen many sightings. I guess the landscapes are too remote and difficult. But I know a local NGO who works on snow leopards conservation who can arrange a tour in higher Nepal.
So my question for myself is should I try their tour, but with a low probability to see snow leopards, or should I choose a place with more probabilities, like India or Mongolia.
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ChrisTownend
Certainly worth considering Mongolia in winter as it is the mating season and so sightings increase. If you do consider Mongolia, have a look at our recent winter trip reports (https://www.wisebirding.co.uk/trip-reports/) for the last 3 years. Whatever you choose, best of luck and hope you are successful.