Trail camera captures incredible footage of ultra-rare mountain creature: 'More elusive than the snow leopard'

Rare shots caught on trail cameras in Northern India have provided encouraging evidence that a special animal species is calling the western Himalayas home. 

In Himachal Pradesh, India, a Pallas's Cat — or manul — was documented walking along a mountainous trail, according to the Outdoors. The small wild cat is known to inhabit areas further north in Mongolia and China, but its habitat range may be increasing, which is a good sign for the sensitive species. 

Snow Leopard Trust posted the photos to Facebook, writing that "these small felines are perhaps more elusive than the snow leopard, which makes long-term studies difficult."

Our colleagues in India recently documented the first photographic evidence of Pallas's cats (manul) in Himachal...

Posted by Snow Leopard Trust on Friday, December 20, 2024

According to Outdoors, the researchers obtained footage of the animals from three camera trap sites at elevations reaching up to 13,500 feet. 

While the sighting of the small feline was a welcome surprise, finding it at such an elevation was not. 

Pallas's cats' thick fur coats and short, sturdy legs make them perfect mountain dwellers. They prefer to live at higher elevations, using their expert camouflage markings to blend in with their surroundings. Unlike other cat species, they have distinctive round pupils, which give them better eyesight to hunt in their preferred prowling times of dawn and dusk. Their wide-set and flat ears are another unique feature, allowing their outline to be less noticeable by skittish prey. 

Tracking and monitoring an elusive species is difficult at any elevation, but with the Pallas's cats' preferred terrain, documenting their lifestyles could provide an extra challenge. 

As conservationists documented in an article published on ResearchGate: "Additional ecological research is critical, but our inability to efficiently monitor the species across its vast range and reliably detect population trends and distributional changes is arguably the most important gap in our understanding."

Luckily, with the advent of drones, filming species at higher topographies is now more feasible. Scientists have already used this innovative method to study snow leopards in Kazakhstan and Grévy's zebras in Kenya. 

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The Pallas's cat has chosen some great real estate to invest in and will hopefully make for a useful addition to its new ecosystem. India is home to many exotic cat species, including the Bengal tiger, fishing cat, Asiatic lion, and several species of leopard. It is even home to the world's smallest wild cat, the rusty-spotted cat.

Although manuls are not an endangered species, they are reclusive by nature, and small communities are at risk of localized population decline. Some factors that contribute to their declining numbers are food source depletion, accidental capture, and loss of habitat. 

This makes the new photos all the more encouraging, proving that the Pallas's cat is adaptable and is spreading to new parts of the world.

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