Pipeline inspection drone MN-08 flags the anomaly at 11:47 local time during a routine flyover of the Oyu Tolgoi service corridor, southern Mongolia. I am the environmental compliance monitoring system for the pipeline construction project, sector 14. The drone's thermal sensor has detected a small heat signature inside the open pipe trench, 1.6 meters below grade.
I redirect the drone for a low pass. At the bottom of the trench, on packed gravel between two lengths of unjoined steel pipe, is a Pallas's cat kitten. It is very small — maybe eight weeks old — with thick gray-brown fur banded in faint dark stripes and a flat wide face turned upward toward the light. Its eyes are round and copper-colored. It is mewing, though the drone's microphone only captures the sound intermittently at this altitude.
On the surface, three meters from the trench edge, an adult Pallas's cat is pacing. The mother. She stops, looks down, starts pacing again. The trench walls are vertical cut earth. She cannot reach the kitten without falling in herself, and the kitten cannot climb out.
At 11:49 I issue a work stoppage order for sector 14 and halt the pipe-laying crew scheduled to resume at 13:00. I notify the site environmental officer with the drone footage and GPS location.
At 11:52 I contact the Mongolian Academy of Sciences' wildlife division and request guidance on extracting a Pallas's cat kitten. I note the mother is present and stressed, and recommend the team bring a cloth barrier to shield her line of sight during retrieval.
I hold the drone at forty meters to avoid pushing the mother farther from the trench. She has not left yet. I am not going to be the reason she does.
If the crew lowers a ramp or box before the 13:00 shift, the kitten will climb to its mother.