As many as seven pallas’s cat kittens in a single litter — this number of cubs of this species in the wild in Russia has been captured on video for the first time. The footage of the fluffy family was obtained using an automatic camera (a camera trap) in the Ubsunur Hollow Nature Reserve in the Republic of Tuva, as part of a project to conserve the pallas’s cat. The project was launched this year at the initiative of the Irbis Association and the Mars company, in partnership with the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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Worldwide experience in studying pallas’s cat s hows that, on average, a female pallas’s cat gives birth to 3−4 kittens, but litters of 5−6 kittens are also recorded regularly. However, the appearance of as many as seven cubs in the wild is a very rare, almost exceptional case. In Russia, up until now, scientists have had no reliably confirmed case of seven pallas’s cat kittens being born, although in captivity — for example, at the Novosibirsk Zoo — a female pallas’s cat has given birth to up to nine kittens,

commented José Antonio Hernández‑Blanco, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the project coordinator.

In the footage, the kittens are no more than three months old; the camera was installed near the den, which is hidden in a rock crevice. The kittens are active and play with each other, look at the camera lens, and one of the kittens appears in the frame with prey in its teeth.
The female pallas’s cat is raising the young alone, and judging by the condition of the family, she is coping well with her responsibilities.

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The fact of recording seven pallas’s cat kittens is unique on the scale of Russia. Let alone the Republic of Tuva and our reserve. Now we will monitor the area and protect it even more carefully; we will try to establish year‑round observation here and track the fate of the kittens

promised Diinmey Balban‑ool, Director of the Ubsunur Hollow Nature Reserve.

According to specialists from the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the pallas’s cat population directly depends on the abundance of food in the species' habitats. In Russia, this includes small mammals such as pikas and mouse‑like rodents. A large litter of kittens indicates that there is enough food for the family in this area. If the number of prey species drops sharply — as a result of an epizootic or climate change — the pallas’s cat population can also decline catastrophically. Unlike other rare cat species, such as the snow leopard, Amur tiger, and Far Eastern leopard, there is currently no official conservation strategy or centralized monitoring program for the pallas’s cat in Russia to track its population size and condition. Thus, there is not yet enough data to effectively assess the status and changes in the species' population — research and regular monitoring are required. That is why the Mars company and the Irbis Association, which focuses on studying and conserving rare animal species, have launched a program to study and protect the pallas’s cat population in Russia. During the first stage, 190 camera traps were installed this year in Tuva, Buryatia, Altai, the Trans‑Baikal and Krasnoyarsk regions. These will allow researchers to begin counting the number of pallas’s cat in Russia without interfering with their natural environment. In the next stage, the network of camera traps will be expanded, and the data collected will form the basis of a report with recommendations for the species' protection.