Happy 150th birthday to Grigory Choros-Gurkin!

For every Picasso and Rembrandt, there are many more lesser-known artists; this is the case with Grigoriy Choros-Gurkin (1870-1937). He is one of Altai’s greatest artists and most important cultural figures.  The year 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of Choros-Gurkin’s birth and an ideal time to draw attention to the man and his work. Regarded…

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Graduate internship in snow leopard research

Enjoy this video created by The Altai Project’s 2016 intern, Audrey Jost. In it, she documents her collaboration with a local snow leopard expert and his team at Altaisky State Nature Reserve. You can read her article about her time in Altai here.

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October in the Argut River valley

Here are a few pictures from the beautiful expedition The Altai Project participated in along with SUNY-ESF, Altaisky Nature Reserve, and WWF-Altai-Sayan. We hiked down the stunning but isolated middle Argut River to visit cabins frequented by local herders, hunters, and poachers and to investigate the area’s potential for hiking tourism.

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Snow leopards in Argut

These are the first images of wild snow leopards in the central southern Argut region of Altai Republic. In an area that was previously home to dozens of cats, just a handful of snow leopards remaining due to intense snare-poaching.

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