Spot the spectator

"I thought about that famous pictures of a puma walking by the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, and I asked myself: Can we get a picture of a leopard cat walking by the alpine ski course of the Beijing Winter Olympics?"

To examine the state of the animal's population, she and her colleagues set up 10 infrared cameras along 15 km of the hilly trail. The efforts paid off. They got pictures of many wild animals, including roe deer, badgers, gorals and wild boar. Leopard cats were photographed three times, the first one caught on camera in February last year－with the Olympic ski runs in the background.

"Who would have thought that this mountain trail, several kilometers away from the alpine skiing course of the Beijing Winter Olympics, would be frequented by leopard cats," she says.

According to Luo, wild cats are rarely seen so close to big cities, especially metropolitan cities.