In Mongolia’s far west, near the city of Khovd, huge wetlands and stony steppes meet the Altai foothills. Snow leopard, saiga and Mongolian ground-jay are just some of the highlights to be seen here.
Close to the city of Khovd, the magnificent Khar-Us Lake is superb for marsh and wetland birds, including white-headed duck, Pallas’s gull, Pallas’s reed bunting, whooper swan and Pacific golden plover. Other wetlands nearby host breeding common cranes, black-throated divers and eastern greylag geese. They are surrounded by stony plains, which are the haunt of Pallas’s sandgrouse and Mongolian ground-jay, saiga antelope and goitred gazelle.
In the foothills of the Altai, which jut from these vast plains, snow leopards are seen at lower altitude than across the great majority of their range. They prey on Asiatic ibex and argali. Smaller mammals often seen here include tarbagan marmot, long-tailed suslik, red fox, Pallas’s pika, tolai hare and stoat.
On this unique and innovative tour, based in charming traditional ger camps, we explore the arid Altai mountains of Mongolia’s far west for snow leopard. Next, from a second base outside Hustai we search rolling steppes for the bizarre, elusive Pallas’s cat, steppe polecat, argali and much more. Find out more about Mongolia: Cats of Mountain and Steppe
