The winter and summer bring you different experiences on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. In summer, you see the blossoming flowers, lush grass, flowing rivers and so on, the plateau is filled with life and vigor. In winter, you face a barren land and undulating mountain ranges only decorated with snow and dry yellowish grass at your first sight. However, if you search further, you find vigorous life. On this trip with a length of fewer than 2 weeks, we recorded 16 mammals including two cat species, Lynx and Palla's Cat.

Photos from the trip~

For us, the year 2021 should be called the year of cats, because we saw two different cat species at the beginning of the year.

The moment of our happy encounter with a Lynx family came all of a sudden. Without any sign, four hairy Lynx appeared in front of us. They turned back to look at us, showing great curiosity toward the two-foot animals.

▲ Young Lynx

After seeing us, the mother Lynx soon got away with three young. It is not common to see a Lynx family of four. That means more work for the mother and more food to support. Judging from the numerous Wolly Hare, they should be able to enjoy a comfortable life.

▲ Running away

The Woolly Hare, we also called it the cat food No. 1, would take down their ears and hold their body together to keep warm in winter, looking like a dry yak shit when viewing from distance. Unfortunately, this dexterous cute animal is the main victim of road-killing. From Dulan to Kekexili, we saw more than 10 roadkill of Woolly Hare.

▲ Woolly Hare

Compared with the sight of Lynx on our trip, it took us quite an effort to see the Palla's Cat. As one of the popular memes on the Tibetan Plateau, Palla's Cat enjoys countless fans because of their elegant temperament, but it is not easy to spot them. After searching in the no-man zone for the whole day, I saw every stone like a Palla's Cat. When a Palla's Cat stay still, it looks exactly like a stone.

▲ A Palla's Cat stay still 

Grassland is a paradise for rodents, full of holes of different sizes made by Himalayan Marmot and Plateau Pika. Palla's Cat will often "borrow" the holes of Himalayan Marmot for their use. Before getting out of the hole, it will stretch out its head to look around. Its flat head and broad face help keep its exposed part to a minimum.

▲ A Gaze from A Palla's Cat

As an expert of still-hunting, Palla's Cat is good at hiding in the environment, approaching stealthily, and catching the prey with a surprise attack. Plateau Pika, which we name as cat food No. 2, is their favorite target. 

 ▲ Palla's Cat still-hunting a Plateau Pike

Compared with the cyber-star the Palla's cat, Plateau Pika may feel sad about always being prey.

▲ Plateau Pike

Mentioning the cyber-stars on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, we can not skip Tibetan Fox. Compared to Palla's Cat, and Lynx, Tibetan Fox is relatively common with eyes that are always full of wisdom every time I see them.

▲ Sneaky as a fox

This pika-hole-digging master has a longer mouth than other foxes with a longer chin and more muscle attached to it.

▲ A feeding Tibetan Fox

Though belonging to the same family, Red Fox looks cuter.

▲ Red Fox

A better candidate for mating……

▲ Red Fox

Under the same family of Canidae, Wolf is dexterous and vigilant. We encountered face-to-face 7 wolves in a river valley. They climbed over a slope like a gust of wind and then we found several pieces of Blue Sheep remains.

▲ Wolf

In winter the most active ones are those from the family Bovidae like Tibetan Antelope, Tibetan Gazelle, Przewalski's Gazelle, and Wild Yak. They have gathered in flocks with males and females. The fighting between males for mating rights is frequently happening on the Plateau. We encountered two male Przewalski's Gazelle. Being critically endangered, they only live in a very narrow stretch of territory along Qinghai Lake.

▲ Przewalski's Gazelle (male)

The male will chase after the female to ensure that the mating females are always in his territory.

▲ Przewalski's Gazelle (male)

Tibetan Antelope on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is one of the animals first known by people, though from a tragic story (We recommend you watch the Chinese documentary film named the Balance in which you will see the whole story).

▲ Tibetan Antelope (male)

The most distinctive part of Tibetan Gazelle is their white heart-shaped buttocks appearing like the rear light of a car. They always turn their white buttocks toward you. When they run away, you can their jiggling white heart-shaped buttocks.

▲ Tibetan Gazelle (female)

They are not so famous as the animals we introduced above. They mainly live around deserts and half-deserts.

▲ Goitered Gazelle

Compared with the animals above, Wild Yake shows a much higher profile. From Budongquan to Wudaoliang, you can see them from the roadside. These giant animals which can be one ton in weight do not need a low profile. Their living space also faces serious pressure from human activities including herding.

▲ Wild Yak

Blue Sheep is called Cliff Sheep in Chinese. With sexy "black stocks", the Blue Sheep is good at climbing up a cliff just as their Chinese name suggests. Though with a body size of domestic sheep, they are the main food resource of Snow Leopard, still being called by us as the cat food No. 3.

▲ Blue Sheep

Being not so common as Blue Sheep, Argali Sheep has whiter hair. And I think they look cuter.

▲ Argali Sheep

We found we have seen 7 animal species in the family Bovidae. It is pretty good.

On this trip, we only saw one deer species due to distribution range. It is Red Deer. We climbed over a 5,000-meter mountain pass out of breath and found that a herd of Red Deer is gazing at us from a mountain flat...

▲ Red Deer

Gazing from Tibetan Kiang is also very interesting. Once you do not approach them bluntly and wait with patience, those stubborn asses would come to you, gazing at you with curious eyes and wondering the two-feet animal for quite a while..... If you encounter them during driving, please remember the rule that asses always want to take the lead. They would just run in front of your cars, sending your a gust of dust forever...

▲ Tibetan Kiang

Our stories on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau will go on, and our steps of exploration will not stop. We will return to the plateau in February and come back with new stories.