New data on the snow leopard’s range in the high-mountain ridges of South-Eastern Altai: the South Chuya and the North Chuya

The Altai Republic is rightly considered as one of the recognized world centers of biodiversity, where many rare and endangered species of both flora and fauna are concentrated. Saylyugemsky National Park within its modern borders occupies a worthy place in the system of protected areas of the Altai Republic. The park successfully functions solving the problems of preserving rare and endangered species, including flagship ones like snow leopard - Panthera uncia Schreber, 1776, and general biodiversity conservation. The modern border of the park includes sections of the western macroslope of the North Chuya Ridge - the Argut cluster - and the northwestern part of the Sailyugem Ridge macroslopes - the Saylyugem and Ulandryk clusters. The article presents the results of state environmental monitoring "Processing and analysis of data obtained during the inspection of camera traps in Kosh-Agach district" of Saylyugemsky National Park for the first and second halfs of 2023. The total volume of field material was 4 851 trap-days, 29 436 video recordings from 53 flash cards of camera traps installed in the Argut cluster on the South Chuya and North Chuya ridges and the adjacent territory - Lake Akkol, the sources of the Akkol river, Sofia glacier, the northern slope of the South Chuya Ridge. We have reliably established and described a total of 166 encounters of various aged snow leopards.