M24’s Strange Range: A Small Cat and a Big Question
His Mongolian name is Angarag, which means Mars. To our researchers, he's simply M24. But simple is the wrong word for this cat. He's the 24th male snow leopard collared in our long-term ecological study in the mountains of Tost, Mongolia. He was about 2.5 to 3.5 years old when our scientists first collared him in 2025. Since then, his movements have intrigued our team, so we wanted to share a short update on what he’s been up to.
Most male snow leopards in our study area weigh around 43 kg (give or take a few kilograms). Angarag is a bit of an outlier: he weighed just 33 kg when first collared in 2025, and 40 kg when recollared in May 2026, still only slightly larger than an average female. Despite his smaller size (or maybe because of it), he covers nearly twice the range of a typical male, in an area where our researchers don’t know of any other resident males.
That leaves us with an open question: is Angarag a smaller cat who hasn’t managed to establish a territory of his own, or is he an unusually capable resident male covering more ground than most? One theory is that Angarag may simply be too small to defend a territory against larger males and wanders to stay out of their way, just like another small male (M13) in our study. But that’s speculation for now, and the real answer is still unknown.
However, we can say that he’s been far from idle. In the last year, he’s met up with female F19 three times, twice last summer and once again this spring, occasionally feeding from the same kills. He also spent time with another female, F12, earlier this spring during mating season, even though she has cubs and wasn’t likely to mate. And he rested close to a third female’s den while she had cubs inside. One of our scientists jokes that he’s a “ladies’ man.” It’s quite a record for a cat who might not even hold a territory in the traditional sense. All of this, his size, his range, his social life, is only visible to us because he’s wearing a GPS collar.
Tracking snow leopards like Angarag reveals crucial information we couldn’t learn any other way about these elusive cats, like how they use habitat, reproduce, and interact with each other and their prey. That data directly shapes our conservation strategies to protect this endangered species. Angarag was recollared in May 2026. His collar is programmed to detach after 20 months. We hope to learn more about this unusual cat as he continues to roam the mountains of Tost.
Sign up for our monthly E-Newsletter to get all the latest updates about the cats in our long-term ecological study.
Photo credits: SLCF-Mongolia
Acknowledgements:
This Long-Term Ecological Study is in collaboration with Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation in Mongolia and Snow Leopard Trust, with special thanks to the Ministry for Environment and Green Development, the Government of Mongolia, and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences for their support.
Related
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
