Experience the stories behind the shot on YouTube.

Ask Us Anything

Curious about wild cats?

Send us a question about the cats, the expeditions, the gear, or the science. We read everything and answer a selection here.

Questions are reviewed before anything is published. We only post the ones we answer, and never your email address. For answered questions, we'll send you a direct email reply as well!

Answered

Questions we've answered.

  • Rachel: We never use bait or lures of any kind to photograph wildlife. All of these photographs are taken of wild animals in their native habitat. This is a non-negotiable rule for us; our goal is to document real behavior of these animals so others can catch just a glimpse of what their lives look like in the wild. Though it means the chase for all 40 has taken most of Sebastian's adult life, the outcomes of non-baited photographs are so worth the effort.

  • Sebastian: That's an easy one: the Snow leopard. I've been 10 feet from a snow leopard in the wild and I did not see it, it was so camouflaged into the rocks. When it comes to small cats, I think the Southern Oncilla is particularly well-camouflaged within the forest environment; its rosettes are perfectly suited to the mottled light inside the rainforest.

  • Sebastian: The Borneo Bay Cat photo was a pretty momentous shot for me. The biologist I was working with to set up my camera traps was getting one record on his trail cams once in every 2,654 nights. At the time, there were no high resolution photos of this cat in existence. Today, it remains one of the only photos of a non-captive Borneo Bay Cat, and is used to help generate awareness about this extremely secretive and difficult-to-study cat.