A video filmed by a Kazakh woman who described an unexpected encounter with a snow leopard during a walk in the mountains of Almaty has appeared on social media. According to her, the rare predator "simply stepped onto the mountain trail," reports infohub.kz.
The user under the nickname quasar.hcn shared the story on Instagram. She described what happened: "Kazakhstan, Almaty. Ghost of the mountains. It's still hard to believe we actually saw this. During the ascent, a dog started following us. It had been barking periodically before that. We saw it reacting to squirrels, so at first we didn't pay much attention. The camera was already on at that moment, and I just kept filming the climb. And then a snow leopard stepped right onto the trail. We were, of course, in shock. In such a situation, the main thing was not to approach the animal and to prevent contact with the dog. We tried to drive the dog away from it and take it with us, but it wouldn't come to us and kept barking."
After some time, according to the author of the post, other tourists approached from the other side. "The leopard calmly went higher up the slope. When the dog noticed it again and started barking, the guys were able to take it and lead it down. We waited for a few more people walking along the trail and then passed that section together. Apparently, there could have been prey nearby; we smelled it, but didn't see the prey itself. So we tried not to approach unnecessarily and not to provoke the animal," the Kazakh woman said.
The woman noted that the encounter with the wild animal was completely accidental and she would definitely not forget it. "We understand how rare and valuable the snow leopard is, so we deliberately do not indicate the exact location," she wrote.
A NUR.KZ correspondent reached out for comment to the Ile-Alatau National Nature Park.