While visiting the Sayano-Shushensky Biosphere Reserve, Mr Putin met Mongol, the first Siberian leopard to wear a tracking collar.
The Russian premier oversees a number of programmes for the protection of endangered wildlife species and is the head of the National Geographic Society's Board of Trustees, so his interest in the Snow Leopard project and in Mongol personally is only natural.
The snow leopard is an endangered wildlife species protected by international conventions. Zoologists say there are now only 40 left in the Altai and Sayan Mountains. Many of them live in the Sayano-Shushensky Biosphere Reserve, near Krasnoyarsk.
Speaking to the park's research staff, Putin said: "We've discussed the construction of a tiger sanctuary in [Russia's] Far East – a project financed by the Russian Geographic Society. Why don't we now try to set up a similar project with South Siberia's snow leopards as well?"
The local scientists are all for this. All the more so since the reserve boasts a solid research base. And most importantly, the leopards feel at ease in the protection of the park.
"Leopards have been living here from time immemorial," says Alexander Rassolov, the park's director. "Before the construction of the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydro-electric station, they lived on the banks of the Yenisei River. Later, they moved deep into the taiga."
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Scientists say that despite the area being highly industrialised (with the hydro-electric station just a hundred kilometres away), the Sayan Mountains boast the largest population of snow leopards in Siberia.
One of the snapshots taken by the park's staff shows a family of five snow leopards. All in all, eight leopards have been seen here in the flesh so far. But their actual number may be higher.
Sergei Istomov, a senior fellow at the Sayano-Shushensky reserve, says his leopard database, complete with photographs and paw prints, is something he treasures.
He gives a name to every animal he surveys. Here is how he explains why he has named prime minister's protégé Mongol.
"Why Mongol? He's a serious-minded cat. He's got scars, meaning he isn't afraid of fighting for his turf. He was quick to discover our camera trap; he thoroughly explored the device and then marked it. Animals are curious, you know. Quite often, while exploring strange objects, they touch them, move them around and thus upset our work."
A short while ago, the Academy of Sciences' Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Animal Evolution approached the park's management with a proposal to cooperate in the surveying of the snow leopard population. This idea was given a warm welcome.
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"Clearly, they have a higher level of theoretical knowledge at the Academy of Sciences, as well as a laboratory fitted out with modern equipment," Rassolov points out. "They will carry out genetic tests we cannot make here, on location. For closer surveying, we've decided to employ a tracking collar. Incidentally, this is the first experiment of its kind in Russia and the third one globally. His bearings are checked every three hours. Our Mongol has been hiding in a cave for two days running. No, no, he isn't stressed by too much socialising with humans. It's just that he killed a goat, had it for dinner, and is now dosing after his hearty meal."
"Our task now is to identify all the snow leopard home ranges across the Sayano-Shushensky reserve," Rassolov said. "I assume there are more of these animals living here than we know of."
Background
The Sayano-Shushensky Biosphere Reserve is in the southeastern part of the Krasnoyarsk Region. It was founded in 1976 on an area of 390.4 hectares to protect the ecosystem of the western Sayan Mountains. Its diverse scenery features areas of steppe covered by larches and taiga forests where dark-coloured coniferous trees dominate, such as cedars and firs. Alpine meadows and tundra are typical of the local highland.
The park boasts about 900 plant species, nearly 70 mammal species (including endangered animals such as the Siberian roe deer, the snow leopard and the sable), and 250 bird species, including the golden eagle, the peregrine falcon, the snow rooster and other rare varieties.
To this day, scientists working in the reserve continue to make new discoveries. Last year, for example, a new plant species was found here and named Sonnikova, after one of the park's botanists.
By Marina Alyokhina