RECAP: Our 2021/22 Snow Leopard Tours in India
Spectacular snow leopard sightings, mating, and even a couple of kills rewarded guests in 2022.
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After COVID shut our tours down for two years, 2022 looked promising. However, by the time January rolled around, the Omicron wave in India disrupted travel again, forcing dozens of reschedulings for our guests. A few guests still managed to make it to what turned out to be an exceptional season when it came to sightings. Instead of pitching camp by Rumbak, we switched to the LUNGMĀR, a remote camp set-up started by our colleagues Rashid and Dorjay. With its central heat, spectacularly comfortable centrally-heated tents, luxurious suites, and 24/7 hot water, the camp was the perfect home in the wilderness for our guests.
The extraordinary LUNGMĀR Remote Camp
Sightings on our snow leopard tours
Between travel restrictions and quarantines, just a handful of guests got to make it to snow leopards for our Jan-April 2022 snow leopard season. But all that came returned incredibly pleased! This year, we started a new system where we tracked locations of every sighting as well as the names of the trackers who found our elusive big cats.
Nawang Tsering came out ahead with 16 cats, closely followed by the legendary Dorjay Stanzin with 10! We also had some great assists by Jigmet Dadul and KC Namgyal from the Snow Leopard Conservancy Trust who were in the field the same time as our tracking crews.
| Tracker | Snow Leopards |
|---|---|
| Nawang Tsering | 16 |
| Dorjay Stanzin | 10 |
| Abdul Rashid | 6 |
| Stanzin Norboo | 3 |
| Behzad Larry | 3 |
| Jigmet Dadul | 4 |
| KC Namgyal | 1 |
Overall we saw 38 snow leopards in 41 tracking days with some days resulting in multiple sightings, and some days with none. For the sixth year in a row, every single Voygr guest saw multiple snow leopards.
The two closest sightings were between 300 and 450 or so feet. The closest sightings were two different cats that had kills in a highly accessible area. Over 70% of the sightings were over 5 hours. The majority of sightings were in the 800 meters to 1.5 kilometer range to start, with most sightings having some flexibility in guests being able to move closer.
Besides the snow leopards guests also saw several Tibetan wolves, fox, lammergeirs, golden eagles, Tibetan snowcocks, Tibetan partridge, and a variety of other bird life. An incredibly luck group also saw a stone marten.
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Our Incredible Journeys
Snow Leopard Expeditions
Award-winning snow leopard expeditions take you on a quest for one of the world’s most elusive cats in the Trans-Himalayas of India.
Photography Expeditions
Our photography tours take you to iconic regions like Ladakh. Our camera trapping workshops help you capture the rarest big cats up close.
Central Asian Journeys
Journeys to Central Asia explore the glorious history of the Silk Route in Uzbekistan, the mighty mountains of Tajikistan and the beautiful steppe of Kyrgyzstan.
Amur Leopard Expeditions
Search for the rarest big cat in the world on our Amur leopard expeditions in the magnificent Russian Taiga.
Siberian Tiger Expeditions
Help conserve the beautiful Siberian tiger on our expedition to the Russian Far East in search of this king of the Taiga.
Bengal Tiger & Leopard Safaris
Witness the power of the Bengal tiger on bespoke and group safaris and the sublime grace of the Indian leopard on our safaris to Rajasthan, India.
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