Where Do Pallas’s Cats Live in Mongolia?
Pallas’s cats are one of the world’s most elusive wild cats, and Mongolia’s steppe is one of the best places on earth to find them. Here’s where they live.
Most people have never heard of a Pallas’s cat, and if they have, it’s usually from a photo that’s gone viral somewhere online. That grumpy, flat faced little cat glaring out from under a rock is almost always a Pallas’s cat, and Mongolia’s open steppe is one of the very few places left on earth where you have a real shot at seeing one in the wild.
They’re also known as manul, and they’re notoriously hard to spot. A Pallas’s cat blends into its surroundings so completely that even experienced trackers can walk right past one without noticing. Finding them takes patience, a good eye, and usually someone local who already has a sense of where to look.
Table of Contents
First Trip to Mongolia? Here's Where to Start
Understanding how things work in Mongolia can be confusing. Here are some things I’d book for my first trip to the country.
🚕 Airport Transfer into Ulaanbaatar
Book your airport transfer before you land. Ulaanbaatar taxis are chaotic and this is worth the peace of mind.
🛌 Where to Stay
My picks at every budget, all within walking distance of the main square:
→ Hostel One: best hostel in the city for solo travelers
→ Urgoo Hotel: locally owned boutique spot, great value and location
→ H9 Hotel Nine: steps from Sukhbaatar Square, ideal for first-time visitors
→ Best Western Premier Tuushin: 4-star hotel next to Sukhbaatar Square, super comfortable
👉 Make the Most of Your Time in Ulaanbaatar
If you have extra days, these are the day tours and 1-day experiences that start and end in Ulaanbaatar I’d actually recommend:
→ Ulaanbaatar: Private Guided City Tour with Car
→ Cooking Class in a Local Home
→ Mongolian Traditional Dance & Music Concert Ticket
→ Chinggis Khaan Equestrian Statue & Terelj National Park
→ Ulaanbaatar: Private Nomad Horseback Ride + Homemade Lunch
What a Pallas's Cat Actually Looks Like
Pallas’s cats have long, dense, light grey fur, short legs, and a stocky build that’s roughly the size of a chunky domestic cat. Their ears are small, rounded, and sit low on the sides of their head rather than upright, which gives them a distinctly flat, wide faced look. Paired with their famously unimpressed expression, it’s easy to see why they’ve become such a favorite among wildlife photographers.
In the winter, Pallas’s cats wrap their long, bushy tails around their bodies and use them as a place to rest their paws, keeping them off the cold ground. That dense coat is built for exactly this kind of climate, helping them survive temperatures that would be brutal for most small cats.
Where They Live
Pallas’s cats live across the open steppe and rocky terrain of Mongolia, often not far from where people actually live. Unlike snow leopards, which stick to remote high mountain ranges, Pallas’s cats can sometimes be found within a few hours of Ulaanbaatar, denning in rock crevices, burrows, and other natural shelters scattered across the grasslands.
That relative closeness to the city is part of what makes them such an interesting animal to learn about. You don’t need to travel to the most remote corner of the country to be in Pallas’s cat territory, you just need to know how to spot one, which is a skill almost entirely built on patience and local knowledge.
How They Hunt
Pallas’s cats aren’t chasers. Instead of running down prey the way many wild cats do, they rely almost entirely on ambush. They’ll wait quietly outside a burrow or tucked into rocky terrain, sometimes for long stretches, before striking fast, occasionally reaching directly into a burrow to make the catch.
Their diet is made up mostly of small mammals, including rodents, pikas, and young marmots. That hunting style, combined with how well they blend into their surroundings, is a big part of why they’re so rarely seen. They’re not avoiding people so much as simply disappearing into the landscape.
Their Life on the Steppe
Pallas’s cats typically give birth in the spring, usually to a litter of two to six kittens. Beyond that, much of their day to day behavior remains a bit of a mystery, since they’re difficult enough to find that long term observation is genuinely hard to come by.
They share the steppe and surrounding terrain with a wide range of other wildlife, including ibex, argali sheep, red deer, marmots, Przewalski’s horses, and Mongolian gazelle, along with birds of prey like eagles, falcons, owls, and vultures. If you’re ever out looking for a Pallas’s cat, there’s a good chance you’ll come across plenty of other wildlife along the way.
Author: Breanna Wilson
Hi! Sain uu! I’m Breanna, an American travel writer and adventurer living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for more than 9 years. I’ve written for and been featured in Condé Nast Traveler, CNN, Forbes, and the New York Times, among others. Read more of my Mongolia travel articles here.
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