On the trail of snow leopards in wilds of Russia

Kamiak High School seniors James Clements and Kindra McCall traveled across the world this summer to search for signs of rare snow leopards in the mountains of the Altai Republic, a remote region in Russia nestled near Siberia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

Seeds for the two-week expedition were sown during the memorial service for Clements' grandfather, James F. Clements, who had been a preeminent wildlife conservationist, working with birds in South America.

Clements, 16, spoke to a friend of his grandfather from Biosphere Expeditions, an environmental organization that conducts conservation research all over the world.

Respect for his grandfather and curiosity led Clements to pursue an expedition of his own. It wasn't hard to talk his 17-year-old girlfriend, McCall, into coming along.

Previously Clements had decided to head to Peru, but warnings of malaria led him to Biosphere Expedition's Tessa McGregor, the scientist responsible for four years of snow-leopard research in the Altai Republic. The aim has been to evaluate the population and habitat of the endangered animal and better understand the challenges to its survival.

Poaching is a major threat to the snow leopard, mainly because one pelt can yield $60,000 on the black market, but the leopards also are seen as a danger to herders who lead their livestock to graze on mountainsides, Clements said.

The World Wildlife Fund estimates that somewhere between 4,500 and 7,000 snow leopards remain on the slopes of Central Asia, their natural habitat.

From July 1-15, Clements and McCall surveyed the remote terrain for tracks, or "scrapes," and scat of the animal and its prey, the argali, a mountain sheep, and ibex, a species of wild goat. No snow leopards were seen, although two were known to still inhabit the area.

"That's down from eight just four years ago," McCall said.

The only qualifications needed for conducting snow-leopard research in the Altai Republic is about $2,000 and equipment. Organizations like Biosphere Expeditions augment limited research funds by enlisting paying volunteers.

Clements and McCall were some 10 to 15 years younger than the rest of the team, said fellow expeditioner Peter Pilbeam from Cambridge, England.

Pilbeam described Clements and McCall as two young people "keen to learn."

The teenagers hiked an average of 10 miles a day over punishing mountain terrain and weathered the high-altitude base camp with no running water, searing heat in the day and below-freezing cold at night, they said.

To reach the area, they traveled unsupervised from Snohomish County to Novosibirsk, Russia.

Clements' father, Dan Clements, said that he spent a sizable sum to have a guide meet them there. No one showed, but the teens found their way to expedition scientist McGregor by enlisting one of a throng of Russian taxi drivers.

"They are both very mature, responsible kids," Dan Clements said. "I was doing similar stuff at that age."

Unfortunately, his son was kept from a few days' surveying because of an intestinal parasite he caught from drinking river water contaminated by some ibex.

It didn't keep him from enjoying the scenery. He said he was stunned by the beauty of the landscape every time he left his tent, which was often — to visit the latrine.

"I remember looking out over the Russian steppe, thinking how beautiful it was," McCall said, laughing, "and then I'd remember that James was dying in his tent."

But soon Clements was back on the trails.

The two saw firsthand the impact of the fall of the Soviet Union on villages in Central Asia. Plummeting livestock prices took a toll on herders' ability to get by, and now herds of 1,000 or more are required just to survive, which drives snow-leopard poaching.

Killing a leopard can provide an impoverished villager much needed — and easy — money, and also results in one less predator for the flock.

"That was the hardest part of the trip — learning about the conditions these people face," said Clements.

"I think Kindra's gained a new appreciation for the delicate balance of nature," said McCall's mother, Laurel McCall.

Clements and McCall both hope their unusual extracurricular activity will help them get into Drexel University in Philadelphia, though not for zoology or environmental studies. Clements wants to pursue aerospace technology, and McCall plans to study computer animation.

Kathy F. Mahdoubi: 206-464-8292