Aksu County Qilian Mountains: Wild Yak Herds Roaming the Snow Plains, Four Snow Leopards Appear Together

The staff of the Forestry Ecological Workstation of Aksu County conducted wild animal epidemic source and disease inspection in the Qilian Mountains within Aksu County, where the altitude is more than 3000 meters. During the inspection, they recovered some infrared cameras erected in cooperation with WWF in late 2019. In one of the recovered infrared cameras, a precious scene of four snow leopards together was discovered, which is the first time this region has captured four snow leopards together. The video consists of four segments, which can clearly show one female snow leopard with three cubs roaming at night.

wild yak

The national level protected animal wild yak appeared in the Aksu Hailten grassland within the Qilian Mountain National Park. This is a rare occurrence in this region, with a large group of wild yaks running in the snow, presenting a magnificent scene of 'Thousands of Yaks Running'.

When seeing this group of wild yaks in the Aksu Hailten grassland, they were leisurely foraging by the roadside, with mixed groups of large and small herds, and when they saw vehicles passing by, they quickly ran into the mountains and disappeared into the mountain gullies.

Wild yaks are known as 'the totem of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau', once on the verge of extinction, distributed in the harsh and severe alpine grasslands and high-altitude deserts of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at altitudes of 3000 to 6000 meters, and are one of China's most precious wild animal resources, and are listed as a national level key protected wild animal. The recent discovery of such a large group of wild yaks in this region is rare.