Grumpy-looking Pallas's cat photographed by camera trap in stunning photo from eastern Himalayas

The elusive Pallas's cat has been photographed in a region of India's eastern Himalayas that it's never been seen in before. The camera trap image, showing the grumpy-looking, fluffy cat in a snowy landscape, is the first photographic evidence of the species in the state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Pallas's cats (Otocolobus manul) are among the world's least studied wild felines and are rarely photographed. Their appearance in Arunachal Pradesh represents a significant expansion of their known range in the eastern Himalayas, having already been spotted in Sikkim in India, Bhutan and eastern Nepal.

Between July and September 2024, researchers from WWF India and the Arunachal Pradesh Forest Department set up 136 camera traps across 83 remote, high-altitude sites between the West Kameng and Tawang districts.

Covering more than 770 square miles (2,000 square kilometers) of rugged terrain, the devices remained active for over eight months — often in freezing temperatures and at elevations above 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) — making this one of the most extensive wildlife surveys ever attempted in the region.

The Pallas's cat was recorded at an elevation of 16,400 feet (4,992 m).

"The discovery of Pallas's Cat in Arunachal Pradesh at nearly 5,000 metres [16,400 ft] is a powerful reminder of how little we still know about life in the high Himalayas," Rishi Kumar Sharma, head of science and conservation at WWF India's Himalayas program, said in a statement.

"That a landscape can support snow leopards, clouded leopards, marbled cats, and now Pallas's cat alongside vibrant pastoral traditions speaks to its extraordinary richness and resilience."

Pallas's cats diverged from the leopard lineage about 5.2 million years ago, making them one of the oldest surviving wild cat species. Compact and thick-furred, they blend seamlessly into rocky, shrub-covered slopes.

They are ambush predators, emerging at dusk to hunt rodents, small birds, and lizards. To cope with the brutal cold of their environment, they stand on their bushy tails, using the fur to insulate their paws from frozen ground.

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The survey also captured five other wild cat species in the region. This includes snow leopards (Panthera uncia), common leopards (Panthera pardus), clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa), leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis), and marbled cats (Pardofelis marmorata). In a rare behavioral observation, one snow leopard and one common leopard were even seen scent-marking at the same site — a glimpse into how these big cats navigate overlapping territories.

"The findings of this survey are remarkable and the discovery of multiple wild cats at such extreme elevations opens exciting new opportunities for ecological research and conservation," Taku Sai, senior project officer at WWF-India, said in the statement.