On the Prowl

Summary
Sarah Barrell, an inexperienced conservationist, along with her fellow
volunteers and Russian mountain guides headed by conservationist experts
comprising Ukrainian scientist and British Expedition team leader, Tessa, visited
the Altai Mountains, Siberia, to collect information on the elusive and endangered
snow leopard. This region on the edge of world is almost uninhabited as its
environment is neither favorable nor nurturing. Even many soviet engineers and
European explorers failed in their expedition of taming the Siberian wilderness. As
this region had never been studied before, it was not an easy task especially for the
inexperienced conservationists as they were to collect data to determine the habitat
and the remaining papulation of this endangered specie in such a high-altitude
habitat. Moreover, the habitat of this creature stretching from the Siberian Altai to
the peaks of Pakistan and crossing war zones and lawless areas made their
expedition tougher. Furthermore, it became a challenge to locate this animal due to
the colour of its skin that helped them to camouflage. During their survey of this
hazardous region, they faced severe temperature, and apart from recording
numerous signs of this creature in terms of its faeces which was sent to British
Snow Leopard Society for DNA sampling, they also caught sight of its prey, two
Siberian goats. The most threatening thing they observed was that the whole
habitat was in danger due to overgrazing by the local farmers and killing of both
the leopard and its prey species. Later on, Tessa took them towards the
mountainous border with Mongolia where they met the most pleasant side of their
fieldwork as the local herdsman served them sweet tea along with bread and salty
cheese. Tessa’s healthy relations with the local not only proved helpful in their
expedition but would also be fruitful in future to protect the local environment.
Barrel’s experience of conservationist expedition on the barely visited frontiers of
central Asia which might inspire others is a great source of pleasure for him. For
Barrel, the holidays (a two-week holiday) spent in the fieldwork became the most
productive and left permanent imprint on his mind. Moreover, the conservations
skills which he learnt were, in fact, experiences rather than transferable life skills.