A friend in Almaty recommended that I check out the Insta account of Dmitry Dotsenko (dots_foto). Three days ago he achieved a lifetime ambition when he spotted a snow leopard on the outskirts of Almaty, former capital of Kazakhstan. Let him tell you in his own words what he saw:

“I’m sharing with you a selection of photos of a snow leopard that I managed to take yesterday in the mountains near Almaty. Photographing a snow leopard has long been my dream. In fact, just seeing one with my own eyes in our mountains would be a once-in-a-lifetime event! I’ve been hiking in these mountains since childhood, and the thought that snow leopards live here seems completely natural to anyone from Almaty. We all know about them, we’ve heard about them since we were kids, but at the same time, the snow leopard remains a mystery—something almost mythical, hidden in dense spruce forests and rocky cliffs.

Very few people ever get to see one. Even those whose lives and professions are connected to the mountains often have never encountered this graceful predator. Most of the time, we have to settle for tracks in the snow or rare shots from camera traps.

But this time, something truly rare happened. The snow leopard had taken down a maral (a type of deer), throwing it off a cliff. And by a twist of fate, I happened to be in the right place at the right time. After almost an hour of waiting in ambush, the leopard appeared. The feeling was incredible—adrenaline was off the charts, and time seemed to compress into a single moment. It was hard to keep control of myself and the equipment, but in the end, I managed to get these rare and, without exaggeration, unique shots!

After the shoot, an interesting thought came to me: I’ve walked here hundreds of times, these mountains are like home to me. And now, here I am, photographing the true master of these mountains—the snow leopard. That’s the essence of this shoot. All the stories about leopards in our mountains suddenly stopped being just words—they became reality, right in front of me.

The photos were taken with a 600mm telephoto lens from a safe distance, so as not to disturb the animal—or, let’s say, not to end up as its lunch myself 🙂. This allowed me to get very close and detailed shots. Here it is—our Almaty snow leopard! Look, examine, enjoy every detail: the color, the shapes, that gaze! 😍

By the way, on my Telegram channel, I’ve made a series of covers featuring the Almaty snow leopard for your smartphones. Download them and enjoy. Let every resident of Almaty, every Kazakhstani, have a piece of our nature’s greatness on their phone. 🙌😍”

Snow leopards are now highly protected in Kazakhstan and the policy appears to be paying off. A little bit of good news…