People have always been intrigued by the beauty of Mount Everest due the mountain range’s vast and mysterious terrain. Now, once again, curiosity has been awakened by the discovery of one of the earth’s rarest wildcats on the planet’s highest mountain for the very first time.
For the first time, the mountains have witnessed the Pallas’s cat on Mount Everest, in the Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal. This incident has been documented in a new paper which has been published in Cat News, according to a release by the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The 2019 National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition is behind this ground-breaking discovery.
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How was this discovery made?
From April 7 to May 2, 2019, Dr. Tracie Seimon of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Zoological Health Program, based at the Bronx Zoo, co-led the Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition biology field team of scientists who collected environmental samples from two locations 6 km (3.7 miles) apart at 5,110 and 5,190 m (16,765 and 17,027 ft) elevation above sea level along Sagarmatha National Park on Mount Everest’s Southern Flank.
Dr. Seimon in a statement said, “It is phenomenal to discover proof of this rare and remarkable species at the top of the world.”
According to the Cat News, the Pallas’s cat is a very distinctive looking field with short legs, a stocky, compact build, and long fur that makes it look larger than it is. The hair on its underparts is nearly twice as long as on the top and sides, an adaptation that keeps Pallas’s cat warm in the extreme cold winter conditions that are typical of its habitat.
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