Oct 22^nd , 2012 A Tiger's Tale
We checked the camera this morning, hoping to find a tiger posing nicely for us.   Again, no such luck.  But, to our great surprise, one of the cameras was able to snap a photo of an animal passing through. It passed through so quickly, the camera was only able to snap a picture of the animals tail.

A tiger?

Not sure.  Maybe.

Less than two-thirds of the tail was photographed.  This could be a leopard or a smaller cat as the scale of this animal is not apparent.   I'm just not sure and without a known tail to reference this one against. I can only hope and go with my best guess. Ironically  I had a dream last night that we photographed the tail of  a tiger. 

We are all smiling today having move a step closer. The tracks we've viewed up till now and this photograph of this tail, tell us that some sort of feline predator lives here. We will set up an additional camera in this area tonight. Hoping to catch the animal traveling back through.

Two Sherpa girls are tending cattle a cross the way from our camp site. One of the girls told us that she has seen both tigers and leopards in the area every year she has been out with her cattle.  Her last sighting being April of this year.  To our delight, she said that she has seen more tigers than leopards. She described the sound a tiger makes as a barking, and similar to the sound a bull yak makes. She also told us that she has seen many paw prints of both large and small tigers. I asked the young woman how she was able to determine the print of a tiger from that of another animal. She said the print looks like a dog's paw print, but with out the claws. The young woman also successfully described both tigers and leopards and identified them both through photographs. I smiled with amazement at her biological skill.

The morning is very clear, so we are taking the opportunity to hike up to over 3,150 meters to get a glimpse at Mt. Everest today. Once there, we could only see the tip of the mountain over the view of the other mountain peaks, but I figured this was as close as I would ever get to seeing the the tallest mountain on planet earth.

The tail of a tiger or leopard?

Mt. Everest to the lower left of my pole, surrounded by clouds

Three Sherpa guides with two Sherpa cattle women pointing to Mt. Everest

Part of the Himalayan mountain range as seen from 3,150 meters