The snow leopard is "this mystical, legendary creature." / Yan
Gluzberg, Getty Images Boone Smith is on a search for the
world's most elusive big cat in one of the most dangerous places
on the planet: Afghanistan. It's not a military mission that has
brought expert trapper Smith into the battleground, but a
conservation group that hopes to save the snow leopard, one of
several big cat species in dramatic decline. "It's the only cat
I'd follow into a war zone," Smith says. "The snow leopard is
this mystical, legendary creature, and it's the toughest cat in
the world to catch and to find." Smith has been tasked with the
challenge of finding and trapping a snow leopard and collaring
it with a GPS locator. The collar will give the researchers a
chance to collect 13 months of data to study the cat and attempt
to protect the species. "We know so little about snow leopards,
so everything we gain from these GPS collars is new," Smith
says. "It's little dots and pieces at first, but once it comes
together, it will be