The snow leopard family was actually like this, 99% of people would never imagine it

Today, I'm going to tell the story of Bingbing.

I feel like I know Bingbing, but unfortunately it doesn't know me - in fact, I've never had face-to-face contact with it. But I've seen many photos and videos of Bingbing, and I know what it did, what it loved, what it hated. From the cameras, I pieced together its story.

Bingbing is a snow leopard. In 2014, volunteers from Wilderness Xinjiang had just set up infrared cameras in the No. 1 Glacier area in the mountains on the southern outskirts of Urumqi when they captured it on camera. In the volunteers' eyes, it had a beautiful face and an elegant figure. The same camera also captured a cub during the same period, which must have been its child.

First meeting with Bingbing, the camera wasn't very good back then. Photo: Wilderness Xinjiang

This must be a female snow leopard! What should we name it? The volunteers pondered,Snow leopards live in icy and snowy environments, so let's just call it Bingbing. Fan Bingbing, Li Bingbing - now we have a leopard Bingbing, how nice!

But not long after, the volunteers were "slapped in the face." More and more photos came in, and this darn Bingbing boldlyshowed off its balls - it turned out to be a male! Even stranger, how could a male be raising cubs?

The coronation of the king of the glacier

In the last 20 years, infrared trigger cameras have changed animal research. Previously, it was very difficult to track a specific individual; most of the time, we could only indirectly understand wild animals throughfootprints、feces、traces、soundsand other evidence. If you could encounter a snow leopard in the wild and quietly observe it for ten minutes, that would mean your ancestors' graves were smoking with good fortune.

But withinfrared cameras, the situation is different. Place one or a few at the spots animals must pass through, and after a few months, collect the photos and you'll know what they've been up to.

Bingbing captured by infrared camera in 2015, the spots on its side and big tail are clearly distinguishable. Photo: Wilderness Xinjiang

With photos, if you want to study the relationships between snow leopards, you need to doindividual identification. Fortunately, individual identification is not difficult for them - every snow leopard's markings are different, just like fingerprints. Especially their big tails, which are not only adorable but also have particularly clear and recognizable spot patterns.

Through infrared cameras, the volunteers figured out the size and status of Bingbing's territory. Well well, this handsome young fellow had actuallyoccupied the best habitatin the southern outskirts mountains。

Bingbing's territory is located near the No. 1 Glacier in the southern outskirts mountains, covering an area of over 100 square kilometers, spanning three valleys, located in the higher altitude areas with the most abundant prey, a place that large herds of ibex love. Within this territory, only it and its two wives and children live. Other leopards only dare to wander around the edges of the territory and quickly leave. Logically, the richer the food, the more animals should be supported, but the snow leopard society in the southern outskirts mountains is not like this.Strong males occupy vast premium hunting grounds and only allow family members to reside there. In places where food is less abundant, snow leopard density is actually much higher.

Such a large territory is maintained by Bingbing through force. Next to its home, there also lives a male leopard named May, a big-bodied but older individual who occupies a slightly inferior territory.

Bingbing's rival May. Photo: Wilderness Xinjiang

Possibly before the volunteers began their investigation, the war between Bingbing and May had already started. But amazingly, despite years of fighting, Bingbing's and May's territories remained stable - neither could drive the other away, neither could beat the other, maintaining a balance of power. This was tough on the other male leopards - when two strong ones fight, the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth just get sidelined.

Every breeding season, in the infrared cameras at the border of the two leopards' territories, Bingbing and May would always appearfrequently patrolling. Although these cameras never captured fighting, they always captured newly added wounds on their bodies. The most prominent scar on Bingbing is on its nose, likely scratched by May in 2015. This scar is still clearly visible today.

Photo of Bingbing in 2016, note the scar above the nose, compare with the previous photos. Photo: Wilderness Xinjiang

Taking such big risks, fighting so hard against same-sex members of the same species - is it worth it? Very worth it! Old materials say that snow leopards are all lone rangers, and males and females only meet during breeding season -this claim is very likely incorrect. Observations in the southern outskirts mountains tell us that in this area, top males like Bingbing and May maintain a stable home range. Fixed wives and concubines live in this home range and interact frequently with the head of the household. Such home rangesoccupy the best hunting grounds, and the females living within them can obtainbetter food, and theircubs' survival rate is also higher。

Volunteers' observations confirmed this. Over 5 years, Bingbing's two wives bothbred continuously，and nearly all cubs survived. In places with higher individual density and poorer food, cubs rarely appeared.

The balance of power between Bingbing and May continued until 2017. That summer, May suddenly disappeared and never appeared in the infrared cameras again. Who knows whether this aging hero grew old, was killed, or fell off a cliff. May's home range instantly collapsed - without the head of the household's protection, the wives couldn't hold the territory and quickly withdrew from that hunting ground. A new young male leopard squeezed in.

Who is this young male leopard? Bingbing's wife's son! Just like that,the Bingbing family unified the best hunting grounds in the southern outskirts mountains。

However, in the process of this dynasty transition, a disaster struck.

Plague strikes

The snow leopard's favorite food is sheep. In the Himalayan region, they mainly eat bharal; in the Tianshan Mountains, ibex is their staple food.

Giant ibex horns in the river valley. Our group drove there for three hours, stopped along the way to look around casually, and picked up three pairs of ibex horns.

In 2016, a sheep plague struck the southern outskirts mountains. The plague crossed one after another of the not-quite-high-enough mountain ridges,wiping out the wild sheep in the river valleys in groups, leaving behind piles of white bones. Even now, the ibex in the river valleys still haven't recovered, and giant horns as relics of the grim reaper are still very common on the mountain terrain.

The Bingbing family also suffered. Its two wives, one named Liberation, one named Weasel. These two female leopards each occupied one of Bingbing's three valleys. When the plague struck, Weasel's valley was hit particularly hard, while Liberation's valley had few problems. So what to do?

There was still a way. Who knows how Bingbing did the ideological work, but in the endWeasel moved with her children to the core area of Bingbing's territory. Before this, this area was the main activity zone for Liberation and her children. It seems that Bingbing wasregulating the ownership of its territory, coordinating the relationship between its wives.

Weasel and her two children. Photo: Wilderness Xinjiang

Later, probably due to food shortage, two new female leopards entered Bingbing's home range one after another and were taken as concubines. The Bingbing family occupied the best hunting grounds in the southern outskirts mountains, where some ibex still remained. If even their family had such major upheavals, the fate of snow leopards in the not-good-enough hunting grounds truly made the volunteers sweat with anxiety.

But unexpectedly, that year, the number of snow leopards in the southern outskirts mountains didn't decrease by much. What happened? Snow leopardswent down the mountain to eat domestic sheep!

The snow leopards came down the mountain!

The No. 1 Glacier is the source of the Urumqi River. The entire river valley is not only snow leopard habitat but also grazing land for herders. But in normal years, the herders occupy the lower altitude areas, and snow leopards and the ibex they eat live up high,humans and leopards stay out of each other's way. In 2014 and 2015, when volunteers visited herder households for interviews, many people said they had never seen a snow leopard.

But this situation changed after the 2016 plague.The snow leopards came down the mountain，The snow leopards ate the sheep，Even the herders' dogs couldn't stop them! In normal years, a herding family would raise about 100 sheep, and snow leopards or wolves would at most kill 1 or 2 per year - this was normal loss, and herders didn't mind. But that year, some households lost 10 or 20 sheep, which was unbearable.

Herders have livestock insurance, but this insurance isn't very applicable to wildlife damage: first, insurance companies cover large animals but not small ones, and what wild animals mainly eat are small sheep; second, they require most of the carcass to be left behind - how could that be possible for one dragged away by a snow leopard!

So, the herdersthought of revenge. Some with hot tempers and rascally personalities even deliberately stuffed rat poison into sheep carcasses killed by snow leopards, right in front of the volunteers.

What could be done? Onlyecological compensation - using money to compensate the herders' losses, using money to reward the herders' forbearance. Currently, the local snow leopard conservation volunteer organization is actively preparing to launch a human-wildlife coexistence compensation mechanism for herders.

Domestic sheep... family bucket?

The Bingbing family had actually also had designs on domestic sheep. The volunteers even captured strange things on camera.

On December 22, 2016, before it got dark, Bingbing and Weasel with two children had already set their sights on a domestic sheep. They only took action after dark. But whether it was because Weasel had never killed a domestic sheep before, she seemed to retain fear of humans, hesitating to advance, just staying nearby. Until nearly dawn,Bingbing made his move。

Bingbing approaches the domestic sheep, the sheep is in the red circle. Note Bingbing's big tail - although infrared camera night image quality is average, the markings on the tail are still visible, confirming Bingbing's identity. Photo: Wilderness Xinjiang

Normally, after hunting, snow leopards guard their food and don't allow any other carnivore to touch it, not even members of the same species. However, at 2:48 on the 23rd, the camera recordedWeasel bringing her children over to share the domestic sheep。

A male snow leopard hunting and letting his wife and children eat? This is something unheard of. Unfortunately, the volunteers never captured anything similar again.

If this behavior truly is common, then the snow leopard familymay be more like lions，with close coordination among family members: males responsible for marking territory, maintaining the home range, and helping their wives and children. Such a hypothesis needs more and more substantial evidence to prove. The volunteers are still observing.

The Weasel family, sharing Bingbing's prey. The several bright spots in the distance are Weasel's and her children's eyes. Photo: Wilderness Xinjiang

If snow leopard families are this close, then a male leopard and its own child appearing in front of the same camera one after the other is not so surprising.

Over these years, Bingbing's appearance has been constantly changing. From a face full of youthfulness at the beginning, to now covered with scars and the medals of weathering, its temperament has changed a lot, aged quite a bit, already having the demeanor of May from back then. How many more years can it dominate the No. 1 Glacier?

Bingbing in 2018, looking much older. Photo: Wilderness Xinjiang

We'll see.

This article is the 160th article of Year 4 of Species Calendar, from Species Calendar author @Hua Shi.

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