On a hillside 200 meters away, a male snow leopard closely followed a female in heat. It was April on the Western Sichuan Plateau, and the mountain snow was melting. Typically solitary, snow leopards seek mates at this time of year, providing a rare opportunity for photographers to capture adult snow leopards interacting, providing  perfect moments for stunning photographs.

I walked about 50 meters up the hillside from the side of the road and crouched under a large rock to take photographs. The leopards had just mated. The female leopard was resting semi-crouched at the edge of a plateau, while the male leopard was out of my sight. The female leopard noticed me and looked around, occasionally glancing at my lens. A few minutes later, she yawned several times, stretched lazily, and walked and perched on a nearby rock, with the male closely following. Then, they both stopped there and watched me intently.

Clearly, they were aware of my presence and assessing  if posed danger. I initially thought the snow leopards would slowly move away upon seeing me—this is their usual reaction to human encounters. However, this time, contrary to my expectations, they remained where they were, allowing me to photograph them for a few minutes. Eventually, the female leopard decided to move, with the male following closely. They stopped only 50 meters from the roadside, at the same elevation on the hillside as me, approximately 35 meters away. At that time, my three Tibetan assistants were still on the road, capturing the scene with their cameras.

I decided to remain still and continued taking pictures quietly. They watched me for a while, then disappeared behind the rocks, only to peek out again a moment later. After a few minutes of this standoff, I suddenly realized something. I quickly got up, shouldered my camera, and then slid down the steep slope to the roadside. As soon as I moved, they immediately came to where I had been squatting and sniffed the ground and rocks. One of them even defecated there before climbing up the hillside. It turned out that the spot where I had been, was their territorial marking spot, and I was in their way.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief, grateful for my judgment. The literature had not deceived me! While snow leopards have the capacity to attack, even kill humans, they choose not to do so. This must be the result of evolution. Snow leopards that attacked humans have likely been eliminated; after all, they are no match for humans.

Upon further research, I found that large carnivores generally attack humans under two circumstances. First, when they are nursing cubs and humans come too close, and second, during sudden, unexpected close encounters. If the distance between the animal and a human crosses a critical threshold, the animal may instinctively react with aggression.

I have seen people approaching snow leopards in cages. The leopards would roar and make aggressive movements because the person was closer than the critical distance and the leopard had no escape. I have also heard that in some areas, snow leopards will kill yaks. While feeding on a yak, if a herdsman or someone from an insurance company approaches, they may display threatening behavior to protect their food, but they eventually back off and never actually attack the human.

This close encounter with a snow leopard deepened my fascination with these magnificent cats. In the years following, I continued photographing more of these big cats. After my first snow leopard sighting in 2018, I set a goal for myself to complete 99 "encounters" with them in the wild - a goal that seemed unachievable at the time. Through years of effort, finding snow leopards has become much easier and this was the story of my 86th encounter with the world's most rare big cat.