Snow Leopards and Friends

It’s midwinter in the mountains of the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau, four kilometers up, and airless. This is the home of the rare snow leopard, the spirit of the Himalayas. Isolated yak herders have battled snow leopards, bears and wolves for generations; these are old animosities. In 2006, the area became a reserve, and a gun ban was strictly enforced. The herders have no way to protect their yak, and started losing 10% of their calves each year. What to do? Three young herders try and supplement their income by scraping together some money from odd jobs and borrow some cameras. They know the animals better than anyone, they grew up with them. Snow leopards are woven into their childhood dreams. Their names are Zi Ding, Qu Peng and Da Jie. They are joined by professional wildlife cameraman Xi Zhinong and together, they will work for over five years to capture amazing behavior.