I’m just back from my first visit of the year to the “Valley of the Cats”, near Yushu in Qinghai Province. With winter loosening its grip and daytime temperatures reaching 15 degrees Celsius, it was a good time to visit.
The purpose of the trip was to conduct the second training session for the local families about wildlife watching tourism. And immediately before the training, I took the opportunity to accompany two teachers – Wayne and Jenny Winkelman from the International School of Beijing (ISB) – for a visit to the Valley as tourists.
As well as seeing a Snow Leopard on day one, Wayne and Jenny were fortunate to see seven Tibetan Wolves in a day and enjoyed some spectacular encounters with species such as White-lipped Deer, Blue Sheep, Alpine Musk Deer and birds such as Tibetan Snowcock, Tibetan Babax and Lammergeier.
As well as the wildlife, they soaked up the culture with a hike to a 800-year old local temple and Jenny spent a day as a yak herder, helping to round up the yak and milking them in the morning.. Listen below to the wonderful sound of a yak grunting as it’s being milked..
After Wayne and Jenny’s experience, we’re hoping to set up a partnership between ShanShui and ISB with ISB sponsoring some camera traps in the Valley, the photos from which will be shared with the students.
Working with ShanShui Conservation Center and the local government, we conducted three days of training involving one day of ‘classroom-based’ activities followed by two days of field training. As usual, the local families were a joy to work with and we learned as much from them as they did from us.
This time, our training was focused on guiding. We identified the best sites for wildlife watching and, splitting into two groups, visited each in turn. Special wildlife recording sheets – in Tibetan, Chinese and English – were created and each family will now record all wildlife sightings including date, time, location, species, behaviour and any other useful information. The data will be reported to a community focal point to help build up a picture of the wildlife in the Valley and to identify trends. Importantly, when there are visitors in the Valley, the families will report any sightings via the walkie-talkie network, enabling the information to be passed to the host family and thus increase the chances of wildlife-watching tourists being able to enjoy the best possible experience.
We were fortunate to be in the Valley at the same time as the Snow Leopard scientists from ShanShui and, with them accompanying us on the field visits, we were all educated in how to identify and collect mammal faeces.. especially Snow Leopard. This is part of an ongoing study into the diet and behaviour of these special cats.
One of the priorities has been to try to secure some optics for the local guides.. and I am delighted to say that we are now in the advanced stages of negotiations with an optics manufacturer to provide 15 pairs of binoculars – one for each family. Alongside a field guide to the nature of Sanjiangyuan, we’re beginning to build up the capacity of the families in the valley to be able to provide good quality guiding.
The Valley of the Cats is open to visitors, provided they obtain the necessary permits. Look out for a dedicated website to be launched soon. In the meantime, if you are interested in visiting, please don’t hesitate to contact me and I can help facilitate the arrangements.
Huge thanks to Li Yuhan and the team from ShanShui Conservation Center, to Wayne and Jenny Winkelman for being such great travel companions and to the local families for being such a joy to work with and for teaching us so much about their environment and culture. I am looking forward to my return.
Below some more photos from the most recent visit, including some recent camera trap photos of Snow Leopard, Leopard and Pallas’s Cat, courtesy of ShanShui Conservation Center.