Can you spot the snow leopard? Amazing photographs show the elusive predator stalking its prey in the Himalayas
- Photographer Inger Vandyke followed a group of snow leopards around the Indian Himalayas for 17 days
- The Australian was part of a group of photographers who braved sub-zero temperatures to follow the elusive cats
- Snow leopards are incredibly hard to track in the wild as they are very well camouflaged and incredibly stealthy
- Ms Vandyke described her trip as the best experience of her life, despite the intense cold and harsh conditions
These are the amazing scenes where a wildlife photographer managed to capture images of an elusive snow leopard hunting bharal blue sheep in the Indian Himalayas.
Inger Vandyke, from Australia was on a 17-day trek in the mountains as part of the expedition to try and take photographs of snow leopards in the wild.
She went on the trip along with British expert Mark Beaman and a team of local guides to see if they could find the incredibly rare animals.
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Can you spot the snow leopard? Scroll down to see a photograph revealing its hiding spot
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In this photo, a snow leopard stalks a group of bharal blue sheep from an well camouflaged position. Scroll down to see it revealed
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A second photo shows the leopard hiding in this rocky outcrop. To see a photograph revealing its hiding spot, scroll down
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The snow leopard was spotted high in the Indian Himalayas by Australian wildlife photographer Inger Vandyke
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The snow leopard, pictured, with a second just behind, blended into the rocky mountain above the village of Ladakhi, India
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The stealthy animal is very well camouflaged against the rock and grass found within the Himalayan mountain side
Ms Vandyke said: 'Mark and I were out in the field for the duration of 17 days without a shower and in the same clothes that we started in. On one watch for leopards, one of our Ladakhi friends bought us a liter bottle of water to drink at 1pm. By 2:30 p.m., in the broad sunlight, that water had completely frozen over.
'When I look back at my photographs I often wonder how many we might have walked past in the field and simply didnt see them.'
Ms Vandyke told GrindTV that without the assistance of locals in Ladakhi, herself and her travelling companion would never have been able to see the snow leopards.
She said the animals simply disappeared from view if you lost sight of them for a split second.
She said: The Ladakhis are incredible in this way. Some of spotted snow leopards, then tried to point them out to us and it took us several minutes to train our vision to see them.
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Eventually the snow leopard is spotting by a small sheep-like animal which darts off in a bid to escape from the hungry predator
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Depiste getting within a few feet of its prey, the snow leopard failed to advance close enough to the sheep in order to pounce
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The photographers braved the sub-zero temperatures in order to capture these unbelievable images of the snow leopard, pictured
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According to Inger Vandyke, seven out of eight times the snow leopard, pictured, fails in its attempts to kill its next meal
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Ms Vandyke said that it was so cold while trailing the snow leopards, that her water bottle froze solid within an hour
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At night, temperatures on the HImalayas outside the village of Ladakh dropped to below minus 25c and rarely rose above freezing
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According to Ms Vandyke, without the help of some local guides, they would never be able to track down the snow leopards
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The stealthy animals have the ability to blend in almost seamlessly to their background in the Himalayan mountains
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Two of the snow leopards took time out of their hunt to play with each other in their remote mountain location above Ladakh
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The group spent 17 days trekking through the Himalayan mountains to follow the snow leopards and to watch them hunt their pray
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The snow leopard prowled silently across its territory searching for its next victim while being followed by a group of photographers
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The snow leopard, pictured, is rarely ever photographed because of its life in some of the most remote areas of the world
'Even in the "camouflaged leopard" photograph you see in my images, we had followed that leopard so we knew where he was, but each time we took our cameras away from our faces to have a rest from carrying a heavy lens, we would try to locate him again to take a photo and it would take us a minute or more to try and find him again as he hid behind a rock.'
Ms Vandyke said despite the snow leopard's stealthy skills he was unable to catch the sheep.
'Seven out of eight snow leopard hunts fail and we tried desperately to sit and hide so we wouldnt interrupt his hunt. We wanted him to be successful so he could enjoy some food. That encounter was, and will probably always be, one of the the most incredible experiences Ive had with a wild animal in my life.
I was shaking at the end of it. Of course, this was partly because I was cold from sitting for hours in the ice while all this transpired, but I was also shaking because I couldnt believe what we had just witnessed.'
Did you spot the snow leopards? If not, here they are circled below
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In this photo, the elusive snow leopard (circled) can be seen crouching behind a group of rocks as it stalks its prey
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In the second photo, the leopard (circled) sat perched on the rocky outcrop with only the top of its head visible
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...or-stalking-prey-Himalayas.html#ixzz3gbt6kA00
