In the Throne of the Mountain Gods in Pursuit of a Phantom: The Himalayan Snow Leopard, with Dr. Richard Benfield

Dr. Benfield is a retired university professor specializing in European architectural history, environmental issues, our national parks, and biogeography, and particularly snow leopards and botanic gardens. He has been a speaker for CT libraries since 1997 on all four disciplines in which he specializes. In 2005 Dr. Benfield was approached by the Snow Leopard Trust in Seattle to act as Citizen Scientist to the Trust to undertake baseline research on snow leopards in Kyrgyzstan, the country on which he wrote his dissertation. Since that time, he has travelled yearly to South and Central Asia for the Trust on specific and dedicated snow leopard research projects.

For this presentation, In the Throne of the Mountain Gods, he will present a summary of his almost 20 years in snow leopard research, beginning with a detailed exploration and rarely seen pictures of the enigmatic and mystical snow leopard; he will then take attendees into Kyrgyzstan, Siberia, and Northern India and Pakistan, culminating in his trip to find snow leopards around Mount Everest. All attendees will receive a souvenir in recognition of their interest in this lovely cat.

SC/JM