Oct. 15^th, 2012 – The Milk Man Cometh

Again, up at 0500 hours. The sun made it safe to get out of the tent and the monks have begun their practice.

As we were heading out this morning, one of the team meeting chatted with a man who was bring fresh yak milk down to the monks. He claimed he has just been attacked by a tiger on the trail, east, leading into the monastery. A credible story? Perhaps. The man is in is '80's and had already had a few cups of chung, a locally brewed alcohol all that Sherpa people drink throughout the day. Thus, his perception may have been... clouded. Nonetheless, this is a lead we needed to follow up on, immediately. We gathered as much details as possible from the man and headed east, into the jungle, well outside our intended target area.

We climbed to over 3,000 meters. I was dying but determined to not stop. This jungle was beautiful. Lush green moss was ever present in the undergrowth. Many dense, as well as open areas. Suitable tiger habitat.

Location of pug mark

 Within an hour, we arrived at the alleged attack site. Fresh prints in the sand. The man had indeed, saw something. We were able to ID fresh pug marks (paw prints) in some of the sand present on the trail as well as feline scat. The prints were small (in the 3X4 inch range) indicating a young tiger or adult leopard. The scat and scratch post were old and may not have been dropped by the cat we were presently looking to locate.

Pug mark spotted on 10-15-12

Sample of known tiger Pug mark

Difference between tiger cub and leopard pug marks

We also met with a villager tending her cattle in the same area. She claimed that a tiger has been harassing her cattle for the past three nights and that she actually saw the tiger resting on the hill just below her a few days ago. She said she was frightened and once the tiger saw her, it moved off. We had the young woman look at a series of photograph of various cats that were historically found in the area. The young woman identified a leopard as the animal she saw. Its important to note that the woman's identification of a leopard does not mean she has never seen a tiger or know what one looks like. These people speak Sherpa language, which is different from Nepalese. Sherpa, literally means, the people from the east. They migrated down from the east and settled in these mountains. Their language, culture, and features are more in line with the people of Tibet, than the those of Nepal. In their language “Zeek” (tiger) is a big cat. That would also include a leopard.

Old scat found in the area of the "tiger" sighting

Feline scratching in ground, common
for both tigers and leopards.

We decided to set up a camera trap on this trail to catch a look at what may have “attacked” the man.

We walked back down to the monastery to interview the milk man, who had decided to take a well needed nap. He was of little help in this department, calling the photograph of the tiger, an elephant.