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Scientists have recorded the first kittens of a female snow leopard named Darya

A video trap from the Tuvan Ubsunurskaya Kotlovina Nature Reserve has captured the kittens of a female snow leopard named Darya for the first time.
The automatic camera is located in the Khan-Deer cluster, which is adjacent to the Sayano-Shushensky Nature Reserve on the border of Krasnoyarsk Krai and the Republic of Tuva.
The female snow leopard, named Darya, permanently lives in the Republic of Tuva, but in the spring we recorded that Darya was paired with a male named Sayan, who came from the Sayano-Shushensky Nature Reserve. In the summer, the scientists at the reserve "lost" Darya, as if she was avoiding camera traps and was not captured by cameras in Tuva. Then we increased the number of camera traps and the area covered by photo monitoring, and in September we unexpectedly received footage of Darya’s kittens in the Khan-Deer cluster. This is a great joy for us! "Daria is not only alive and well, but also gave birth to offspring.
Diinmey Balban-ool, director of the Ubsunurskaya Kotlovina Nature Reserve.
The first video is a daytime one, in which Daria touches the place where the camera trap is installed with her paw and, being curious, like all cats, tries to study the unusual object.
The second video is a night one. In it, the kittens walk one after another along the ridge. The kittens in the video are about three months old.
Let’s recall Daria’s story. This female was captured by camera traps in 2021 in the Sayano-Shushensky Nature Reserve. She came from adjacent territories and stayed in the area of ​​the Bolshiye Ury River for a short time. Then she moved south and determined an individual area for herself in the Ubsunurskaya Kotlovina Nature Reserve. In 2022, Daria had two kittens, who separated from their mother this year and began to lead an independent life. According to the reserve staff, the 2022 kittens also live nearby and stay near the area where the little kittens were recorded.
The fact that Darya’s groom this year was the male Sayan, scientists were able to find out thanks to the materials collected in the field during the all-Russian snow leopard census, which was held with the support of the Interregional Association "Irbis".
The Sayano-Shushensky and Ubsunurskaya Kotlovina reserves took part in the census and exchanged information. During the office processing of the census results, specialists from the two reserves came to the conclusion that a single Western Sayan group of snow leopards is being formed, living on the border of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Republic of Tyva in places where the Sayano-Shushensky Reserve borders the Khan-Deer cluster of the Ubsunurskaya Kotlovina Reserve. The total number of the group in the spring of this year was 14 individuals; experts will be able to say how the number has changed by autumn after conducting research and processing data from camera traps.