An incredible highlight from the Mongolia program - catching snow leopards on camera traps for the first time in program history 🐾⁠ ⁠ As part of their field work, students help maintain an extensive grid of camera traps throughout the Ulaan Taiga Special Protected Area (UTSPA) to support UTSPA rangers in monitoring wildlife. The team hikes out to cameras, replacing batteries and retrieving full SIM cards. Afterwards, they sort through the images collected by the trap, identifying the animal species captured. ⁠ ⁠ This summer's team got the privilege of discovering these images of snow leopards, ⁠an elusive and rarely seen species. Capturing these images provides valuable insight into the presence and movement of snow leopards in the UTSPA! (fb)

The summer season has come to a close for the Taku student group 🏔️ ⁠ ⁠ To cap off their time in the Taku watershed, the group traveled to Kuthai Lake for two days. Kuthai Lake is one of the headwaters of the Taku River and Sockeye salmon return to the lake every year to spawn. At this site, the Taku River Tlingit use a salmon weir to monitor and count the population of returning spawning Sockeye salmon. Because of the high salmon numbers, the surrounding area attracts bears, wolves and eagles, preying on the fish. ⁠ Students had the chance to see the weir in action thanks to their welcoming and gracious host Elycia.⁠ ⁠ Read more about their experience at Kuthai Lake in student Lauren Schagel's blog: https://www.roundriver-blog.org/a-trip-to-kuthai/ ⁠ 📸: Gabe Kayano (fb)