The cat's out of the bag—or, should we say, the mountains.

With only half a year left to complete their study, the scientists published a report on their use of camera traps in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

Snow leopards (Panthera uncia), which live in the snow-capped mountains of Central Asia, are known as "gray ghosts" or "ghost cats" because they frequently hide from people and other animals.

But researcher Richard Bischof is hoping to shed more light on the shy beast by leading a non-invasive study of snow leopards using scat analysis and photography. (See snow leopard pictures in National Geographic magazine.)

"You can garner lots of information from these images, including insights into distribution and behavior, etc.," Bischof said.

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