From the 4th of June till the 14th of June, 2026, in the Kosh-Agach district of the Altai Republic, the XXII volunteer expedition "In the Footsteps of the Snow Leopard" took place. The organizers and partners of the fieldwork were the Interregional Association "Irbis" and PJSC Sberbank, with the participation of staff of the Altai Biosphere Reserve. The volunteers covered 20 high-mountain routes with a total length of about 300 kilometers and checked 70 camera traps at 34 monitoring points. The work was carried out at altitudes from 3,000 to 3,500 m above sea level. For the first time, two employees of PJSC Sberbank joined the fieldwork in the difficult mountain conditions of the Altai as volunteers, as part of the bank’s environmental program "Saving Together." On equal footing with experienced expedition participants, they walked the mountain trails, helped check the camera traps, and installed new cameras. For the period from September 2025 to June 2026, on the Chikhachev Ridge the presence was confirmed of a dominant male snow leopard nicknamed Satyr, who lives in the southern part of the ridge, the male Toshtu, who is increasingly appearing in the north of the ridge, and the breeding period was repeatedly noted in the same areas as the female Inemara. In the northern part of the ridge an elderly snow leopard was also recorded, whose identity has yet to be established. According to the volunteers' data, two cubs of the female Inemara, which were caught by the camera traps in the autumn of 2025, did not survive the winter. In the previous season, one of the two cubs of the female Akkaya died. This year, no females with cubs have been registered in the monitoring territory.

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We will announce the number of snow leopards on the Chikhachev Ridge after analysis of the data from the automatic cameras, but visual observations during the field expeditions confirm: the situation with the snow leopard requires the closest attention and the adoption of additional measures for the conservation of the snow leopard group on the Chikhachev Ridge

noted Igor Pautov, head of the "In the Footsteps of the Snow Leopard" expedition, advisor for strategic development of the Interregional Association "Irbis."

The expedition was joined by Synaru Trifanova, leading research fellow of the Altai Reserve, who conducts monitoring of the snow leopard on the Shapshal Ridge. The Altai Reserve also provided transport support for the work. The Shapshal Ridge and the Tsagan-Shibetu Ridge, like the Chikhachev Ridge, serve as important migration corridors between Russian snow leopards and the population core of the species in Mongolia. In addition to snow leopards, at an altitude of about 3,300 m fresh bear tracks were discovered, and the camera traps confirmed its presence in the high mountains. Several cameras were damaged by a wolverine.