Snow leopards are amongst the most elusive and shy creatures on the planet. The big cats live at high altitude and are rarely seen by man, let alone captured on camera. But the BBC is reporting that a snow leopard cub has been caught on video for the first time when it triggered a camera trap in the mountains of Bhutan recently.
The video was captured by a camera trap that was set by a BBC film crew who were hoping to get some footage of the rare animals in their natural habitat. The device has a built-in motion sensor that is designed to turn the camera on when something moves within range of the lens. This allows a crew to set up cameras and leave them in the field for extended periods without the need for a cameraman or requiring the batteries to be charged on a daily basis. The team then returns every few days to review the findings and check the status of the device.
This particular trap was activated when the young snow leopard wandered into range. After surveying the area nervously, the cub begins to wander up hill directly at the lens. Looking straight into the camera, the cat sniffs it curiously before slowly moving on. The entire encounter was a brief one, but for the veteran BBC crew, it was the shot of a lifetime.
The footage of the young leopard will air this week on the BBC’s nature special Lost Land of the Tiger a show that also captured video of tigers living at higher altitudes than had ever been recorded before. It seems this particular film crew had lightning strike twice while producing this show.
“Hey, batter, batter, batter . . . saa-weeeeng!” doesn’t translate directly, but the Greenlandic word for it is Anaasilluni, meaning to swing or to hit.
When I saw these kids batting around in the schoolyard, I smiled and thought, “Hey, isn’t that cool? They’re playing baseball!”–but actually no, it’s not baseball. The game is called Anaalerooq, or “hit ball” and it’s played all across Greenland. It might look and feel like baseball-here they’re using an aluminum bat and a yellow tennis ball-but the rules are a little different. For one, there are only two bases, or “points”.
I happened upon this outdoor gym class right at the start of the school season in a village so remote it took me three flights, two helicopters and a two-hour boat ride to get there.
When you arrive, Tasiusaq feels like it’s the last village in the world. In fact, it’s not even a village, but rather a “settlement” at the edge of Tasermuit (“small fjord”). A single dirt path runs between two lines of compact wooden homes, all brightly colored and with steep roofs. There were fish drying out on the clotheslines next to the clothes, and a few perky dogs tied up. Beyond that, the world was just bright blue sea and the grey granite pinnacles of a million unnamed mountains. In the far distance, there was a hint of white and the coolness sweeping off the ice cap.
I was told that only 67 people live in Tasiusaq and that 13 of them were students in this bright red schoolhouse. It’s impossible for me to fathom what life is like in such an isolated place, but I do know that the inhabitants of Tasiusaq can’t ever complain about the view. %Gallery-102341%
When it comes to travel, Greenland has its own rules-which are nature’s rules really. In fact, nature rules so completely that the weather report determines your itinerary, as do the tricky logistics of Greenland’s giant glacial geography.
For starters, Greenland is the least densely populated country in the world: for every human being who lives on the coastal fringe, there are 15 square miles of silent, empty ice rising up in the middle of the country. More than 80% of the land is covered by permanent ice cap, which can only be crossed by air or by skis.
Also, did I mention? There are no roads between any two towns. Getting from A to B in Greenland is very much an adventure in its own right.
What is most shocking about traveling in Greenland is how remarkably empty a place it is. Most of us have never confronted such vast, undisturbed landscapes–no matter how well-traveled we pretend to be. The feeling of being this tiny singular person up against such gargantuan nature is odd and overwhelming. Our intellects tend to panic a little–where are the highways, streetlights, the telephone wires, the ambient glowing dome of the suburbs at night? After you’ve arrived in some town, your mind ponders the landscape and begins to realize that the only way out is to hike–and then to where? On foot, most villages are a good 4 to 5 days apart–and that’s in the summer when the weather is nice.
If you’re the kind of traveler who enjoys wandering in their rent-a-car or hopping from one place to the next in some tightly-packed trip, please skip Greenland. For the others out there–those of who sit all week at desks with computers and crave the open outdoors, then Greenland is the pinnacle of our big hiking dream. Back at home, you might drive a few hours to reach the closest state park that’s overrun with hot-dog roasters living in RVs with blasting rap music. In Greenland, a two-minute helicopter hop puts you into true and utter wilderness where if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll die.And so, Greenland separates one kind of traveler from another. In my hotel lobby, a giant wall map of the country spells out the tiny fishing villages around the coast, then announces the big, white center of the country in bold letters: IKKE OPMÅLT (“Unexplored” in Danish). If that makes your mouth water a little, then Greenland’s gonna be good to you.
Just bear in mind that getting to Greenland is the easy part. There are only two major international commercial airports in Greenland: Narsarsuaq in the south and Kangerlussuaq, right above the Arctic Circle. Both were built by the US military back in the days of the Korean War, and both runways are laid out in glacial deltas of grey silt that lie at the base of tremendous fjords.
From either airport, smaller flights connect to various regions of the country–north, south, east, and west (the most populated area). But due to the rugged landscape, and the overall remoteness of so many towns and villages, a lot of these “flights” take place in helicopters, scheduled daily, like busses that stop in one town and then the next. They are also very, very expensive.
Air Greenland is the country’s flagship carrier. With a virtual monopoly, very low passenger numbers, few and scattered airports, highly seasonal travel and even higher costs, a ticket on Air Greenland can be depressingly pricey. For instance, flying from Greenland’s west coast capital Nuuk to the east coast town of Kulusuk will set you back $1,800 round trip (yes, in economy class). Air Iceland offers several (cheaper) seasonal flights from Reykjavík, but it means leaving the country every time you want to reconnect to a new place.
What that means is that Greenlanders don’t travel so much in their own country. Many Greenlanders who live in one part of the country have never visited another part. When flying to Spain is cheaper than flying to the next town over, most Greenlanders choose Spain. For that reason, family reunions sometimes happen outside the country-it’s usually easier and cheaper to gather relatives for a week of shopping in Copenhagen then for everyone to meet up in some chosen Greenlandic town.
Similarly, the reality of transportation in Greenland is a major limiting factor for visitors. Many come with the erroneous belief that they will “do” Greenland, darting around the country like a tour of England, only to realize their budget or a flight schedule confines them to one tiny corner of the country or even a single town. Accept the reality of Greenland and enjoy what you can see. Pick an area–say the South–fly there, and then invest your budget in shorter jumps between towns. This might be on the subsidized helicopter rides (about $100 a pop) to boats and ferries between “closer” towns, ranging from $50-$100.
Another word of advice–always get a window seat. On helicopters, that means being a little pushy since the seats are not assigned. You’re spending a lot of money to be in this country, and while the flights and boat rides might seem long and functional, they are always scenic. It’s how you will see the in-between places that define the country as the great arctic wilderness that it is.
Air Greenland provided transportation for the author during his travels in Greenland, for which he is very grateful. He still thinks their tickets are very, very expensive.
I’ve never been on a cruise. That said, I’m sure they are quite nice – and plenty of travelers speak highly of them. But I have to admit, the video above is not doing much to convince me to get on a cruise any time soon. Apparently back in 2008, a P&O Cruises ship out of New Zealand got caught in some nasty weather about 400 miles from shore. Even this massive cruise ship, carrying over 1700 passengers, was no match for the 20 foot swells and 60 mile-per-hour winds that came with the storm.
The scary video above, recently revealed from the ship’s CCTV cameras, documents the scene as a heap of lounge furniture and a few unlucky passengers get thrown around like bathtub toys. It was likely a terrifying moment, that thankfully, most of us will never experience.
Before you cancel that sea voyage in terror, consider this: 99.9% of cruises will never have anything like this happen to them. The P&O was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
GadlingTV’s Travel Talk, episode 29 – Click above to watch video after the jump
Join us on Virgin America’s first ever international flight! We hop on a plane with Sir Richard Branson, Drake and a gaggle of entrepreneurs and fly on the airline’s inaugural flight to Toronto, Ontario to explore the (arguably) most diverse city in the world.
In this episode’s couch talk, we’ll discuss just why Toronto is one of the most multicultural cities in the world & what other cities contend for the title of most diverse, based on foreign-born population.
If you have any questions or comments about Travel Talk, you can email us at talk AT gadling DOT com.
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