Saving the Ghost of the Mountain by Sy Montgomery

Tom was the conservation director of the Seattle based Snow Leopard Trust.

The author accompanied Tom “Danger Man” McCarthy to the Altai Mountains of Mongolia to track and study the snow leopard. Furthermore, these cats were killed for their fur and bones and poisoned for preying on domestic sheep and goats. Unfortunately, their natural prey was quickly dwindling and their habitats were being encroached upon. Tough, powerful, and elusive, these loners survived in altitudes with scant oxygen and icy temperatures and blended in with the rocky and desolate terrains being rarely seen. Rare with a gorgeous spotted coat, weighing between 60 to 120 pounds, around 2½ feet in height, 6 - 7½ feet in length with tail, and roaming 11 to 365 square miles, the snow leopard lived in the snowy mountainous area of Central and South Asia. With a dazzling, as-it-happens narrative and spectacular photographs, Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop bring Mongolia up close for readers everywhere. But that’s the only way the Snow Leopard Trust can protect their charges, before the snow leopard truly becomes nothing but a ghost of the mountain. It will take patience, focus-and yes, love-to dedicate a lifetime learning more about this little-understood creature. It will take practice and experience to lay humane leghold snares, collect scat samples, and set up motion-triggered cameras. It will take endurance and persistence to climb the dusty mountain trails, hope of a snow leopard sighting rising and falling with each new summit. And it doesn’t stop Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop from packing their bags in order to join Tom on a trek to Mongolia, where they hope to learn more about this magical cat, a cat who doesn’t give up its secrets easily. Slinking along the Mongolian mountain ridges, the snow leopards are invisible-and almost impossible to study.īut that doesn’t deter scientist Tom McCarthy, Conservation Director of the Seattle-based Snow Leopard Trust, or his many colleagues from dedicating their lives’ work to the study and protection of this seldom-seen creature. A thick, long tail for balance helps snow leopards spring at their prey from great distances-prey that is often three times its own size. Beautiful spotted coats conceal these elusive cats in their rocky, high-altitude habitat-a place where temperatures are often cold enough to freeze human tears.

People call it “The Ghost of the Mountain,” for those who live among snow leopards almost never see one.

Saving the Ghost of the Mountain by Sy Montgomery