Snow leopard hunting on mountain goats
libre 12
Snow leopard hunting of ibexes involves some elements of hypnosis. This was observed by a gamekeeper in the Bartuga hunting farm when he conducted a mountain goat count here in the summer.
Counting mountain goats
Counting mountain goats is not an easy job. Try to count these elusive mountain beauties that flutter down the steeps like a breeze! They cannot be compared to a flock of sheep. When counting ibexes, the most important thing is who will spot whom first. Luck depends on it.
That's why the hunter and the gamekeeper crawled on their bellies to the saddle between two peaks and cautiously examined the mountain slope behind the pass, looking out from behind big rocks. They spotted the mountain goats at once. Three hundred meters away from the observers they were excitedly running back and forth on the saddle on the other side of the gorge.
The goats were running away from the edge of the saddle, somehow reluctantly looking back and stopping, then jumping vigorously back.
Watching their ears, they looked down, stepping and stomping their front legs. It took a long time to understand their strange behavior.
What's the matter with the tekas?
- whispered the hunter, unraveling the behavior of the goats. What do they want? Why are they attracted to the edge of the cliff like a magnet?
Look there!
- And the huntsman pointed downwards.
Snow leopard hunting
Only now the hunter noticed how something gray moved on the rocky scatter below the saddle, on which the mountain goats were rushing around in great excitement. He pointed his binoculars there, and it became clearly visible that a large snow leopard was walking slowly over the rocks, but not towards the goats, but somewhere to the side, not looking at them. He was a hundred meters below the saddle.
When the goats ran away, the leopard took several huge leaps higher up the placer and again walked slowly to the side. He looked lazy and good-natured, as if he did not care about the goats, as if he was going away on his own. Again and again the ibexes ran to the edge of the saddle, looked down at the leopard and scurried away from the edge.
The hunters watched the strange behavior of the animals with interest. The leopard was already not far from the saddle. As soon as the goats ran away from the edge again, the predator jumped ten meters as if on wings to the very edge of the saddle and froze there, hiding behind a rock, as gray and spotted as he was.
The goats came back again and leaped toward the edge of the saddle.
Now he's going to take one of those fools down!
- grumbled the huntsman, raised his carbine and shot upward. A minute - and all was quiet, only the rustling and rolling of stones from under the hoofs of the goats as they rushed upward and immediately disappeared behind the pass. The leopard disappeared so instantly that the hunters did not even notice where it had gone.
They say that frogs and small birds, as soon as they see a snake, get lost and come close to their own death,
- said the gamekeeper as they got up and walked on. And suddenly exclaimed:
And how many teks there were, we forgot to count because of this leopard!
But the snow leopard's hunt for ibexes was unsuccessful this time, and the number of these beauties did not decrease.
