The snow leopard is one of the most elusive predators in the entire world, and photographer Kittiya Pawlowski has captured it in breathtaking detail.
However, as a result of the skepticism and controversy that surrounded her work, the photographer has received death threats.
Since then, her social media accounts have been deleted.
Raw Photos and Actual Experience
After being accused of photo manipulation, she admitted to editing some of the images, but she explained that the raw photos were taken after hiking over 100 miles into the Himalayas with a backpack.
Pawlowski told Newsweek that it was exhausting and was like spending eight hours a day on a stair stepper while wearing a pillow over one's face.
She shared that poor weather and visibility plagued the end of the monsoon season.
During those days, her daily routine went up and down, hot and cold, wet and sunburned, exhausted, and exhilarated.
Pawlowski said she discovered the animal's tracks in Nepal's Annapurna Conservation Area, where she started her search, then she ventured into Sagarmatha National Park's upper valleys from Lukla.
She would use her telephoto lens to scan the valleys every day for movement.
After many days of walking, she was overjoyed to finally see motion.
Pawlowski almost stayed in her tent the morning of the encounter because her oxygen level dropped to 64 and she experienced a severe headache at a height of 17,000 feet.
She had planned to sleep in, but she made the tough decision to keep looking.
Snow Leopards, Ghost Cats
Considering that there are only 2,700 to 3,400 mature snow leopards left in the wild, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified them as being in danger of going extinct.
From southern Russia to northern India, the so-called ghost cat can be found in the snow-capped mountains of central Asia.
The habitat of the snow leopard is dwindling as a result of both climate change and human population growth.
The illegal trade in animal body parts and skins, as well as poaching, affects their populations.
Pawlowski said that since she was a young girl, snow leopards have been her favorite animal.
Years ago, after seeing a documentary about Mount Everest, she decided to try and take pictures of these "ghost" cats.
Phantom Alley
Before she finally saw a snow leopard outside of Gorak Shep, she spent every day scanning the valleys for movement with a Nikon D850 and an AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/4E FL ED VR Lens.
In the vicinity of Mount Everest, a small community called Gorak Shep sits at the end of a frozen lake bed and overlooks Phantom Alley, a field of ice pinnacles.
Read also: Endangered Okapi Calf Born Healthy in Oklahoma City Zoo
Kitty Pawlowski
With Alpine International Magazine taking the lead in a recent article, some photographic experts questioned the veracity of Pawlowski's photographs.
She said in a disclaimer on her website KITTIYA that, considering that all of her published images have been edited and processed using Lightroom and Photoshop, her raw images had already undergone editing.
The photographer dded that some images are composites, while others are not, and some have only undergone minimal editing.
She made it clear that she is not a journalist and never claimed that her photos have not been edited in any way.
Pawlowski concluded the disclaimer by saying that creating art and photography are her side hobbies and that she is just a 24-year-old woman with a 9-5 job who enjoys taking and editing photos and tries to promote environmental awareness.
Nevertheless, the photographer added that she had deleted her social media accounts because she had received death threats as a result of all of this.
Furthermore, she said that the images in this series were all taken by her, and the story behind them is real, and that she walked 103 miles to capture those photos, and the goal of the entire series was to increase public awareness of the need to conserve snow leopards.
Pawlowski said since she was three years old, she has been experimenting with photography, and she uses her art to record the splendor of the natural world.
Lastly, Pawlowski said she wanted her work to encourage people to explore and preserve the planet, Newsweek reported.
Related article: Iberian Lynx, Source of Genes that Live on in Over 900 Felines, Dies at 20 - Spain