It may seem that in this video - ordinary domestic kittens, which for some reason climbed into a rocky crevice. In fact, these are the babies of a wild cat, so secretive that we could hardly find a portrait of her cubs.
Look at this photo. It seems to you that in front of you is an ordinary kitty, just slightly disheveled and unfriendly? In fact, in front of you is a small Red Book cat - manul. These animals are simply aces of ste alth: most of the photographs of manuls were taken in zoos, and sometimes they are caught in camera traps.
Manuls are not only exceptionally secretive, but also very rare. These cats have been teetering on the edge between threatened and endangered for many years; they are listed in several regional Red Data Books. The inhabitants of semi-deserts and steppes are threatened by fires, poisoned wolf traps, traps for marmots, whose burrows are often occupied by manulas. This is not counting outright poaching, because they are still killed for the sake of luxurious fur coats!
Now you understand that the video that was filmed in the Altai Territory is a real treasure? Local residents accidentally stumbled upon a cat's nest in a crevice of rocks and found four fluffy babies there. Their eyes had only recently opened: they were still blue, like those of newborns; later, the eyes will turn yellow-green, like in adult manuls.
Kittens are still fed with mother's milk, but very soon mom will start feeding small rodents to children. And then they themselves will begin to go hunting and become a thunderstorm of pikas and small birds. Sometimes a manul can even overcome a rabbit! People were lucky that the mothers of the kids were not around - otherwise they would not have been greeted.
So, after admiring the rare kittens from a respectful distance, people hurried to leave: they didn't want the kids to worry about mom losing the declassified shelter.