UKC

This blew my mind. Utterly stunning. Kittiya Pawlowski, we salute you. 

Almost unbelievable. 

Both the situation and the fact the photo was taken. 

Where exactly was that taken? And what's the story?

Thanks.

https://kittiyapawlowski.com/snow-leopard-series

Thanks.

makes me wonder what on earth is it doing up there. 

Clue is in the name

I suspect it is very telephoto with the leopard being much lower than it might appear relative to the peak behind. They do go quite high though.

Absolutely stunning photo.

Edit: Having looked at the link, it is clear it actually is right up in high glaciated terrain. Amazing.

Yes but they prefer rocky terrain generally  - not much to eat up where it appears to be but, as pointed out, that may be the lens or it could be travelling elsewhere. 

I am very sorry but it is not a leopard. When I zoomed in with a Hyper-6000-ZZUZ lens I can see it's a cardboard cutout with "Made In Taiwan" printed on the side

Sorry again 

Looks more like a superimposed cow or a border collie.

Photoshopped imho. 

Perhaps its scavenging dead climbers?

Or even live ones.

Perhaps its looking for  climbers to eat?  

Badger. They get everywhere.

I remember a toad being found many years ago above 22,000 feet somewhere in the Himalayas.

IIRC geese have been recorded migrating at similarly insane heights.

Bar headed geese were studied years ago and recorded at least 7700m.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-30845250 

Common crane has been recorded higher though at up to 10000m from what I’ve read some time ago.

Fantastic photos and achievement by the photographer. One of her photos appears to show the Snow Leopard looking across at her.

In 2005 while on a reconnaissance trip for developing paragliding in Bhutan at the bequest of the government, we stumbled across a series of fresh tiger pug marks at an altitude of 4180m. Following the trail we came across a fresh kill and beat a very hasty retreat when a clearly startled tiger vocalised its alarm from a thicket of juniper bushes.

The photos of our GPS showing elevation next to the pug marks was submitted in our report to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests and we were told at the time that this was the highest recorded evidence to date. 

I think large cats at altitude in the Himalaya are not uncommon (a leopard killed my dog while living in Nepal) but seeing them is.

I agree an absolutely stunning photo.

Snow geese flying above Everest!  I actually saw a white coloured goose about 1km away with the pinkies today. To far off to tell. Stunning day as well. Bit warm though. 

Ed:  Just read piemans post - he’s right, not snow geese. 

Then there are monarch butterflies riding the jet stream...

Are they doing this deliberately, or just caught up in winds stronger than they can fly against? Look what gets sucked up into tornadoes for example.

Seems deliberate, since it forms part of their regular migratory pattern.

There's a good book by Sylvain Tesson about travelling to Tibet to try and get photos of a snow leopard. It's been translated into English:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/652819/the-art-of-patience-by-sylv...

That sounds almost incredible. Where can we verify the claim? I have so far found https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0327 and https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/z79-180, but neither appear to imply either heights or speeds associated with the jet stream.

Thanks.

I took this photo of a monarch about to approach that altitude