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Snow Leopard - Panthera uncia
Topic Started: Jan 7 2012, 08:40 PM (20,450 Views)
Nergigante
Carnivore
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Snow leopards look amazing its nice to see a feline that is a different genus incia and be awesome if there were more felines like the snow leopard.
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maker
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Ursidae black bear
Jan 31 2016, 11:36 AM
its nice to see a feline that is a different genus uncia and be awesome if there were more felines like the snow leopard.
It's outdated unfortunately, the latest genetic studies placed it in genus Panthera, with the tiger being the its closest relative:

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22732/0
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Nergigante
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to bad but actually I can see what both the snow leopard and tiger have in common both can do the chuffin sound that tigers make and they both have large heads with slender but robust bodies.
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Wombatman
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I have seen a video in this forum that shows a snow leopard roaring. As in roaring like a leopard. Wasnt that a trait of the genus Panthera or all cats can do it once they reach a certain size?
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Scalesofanubis
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"I have seen a video in this forum that shows a snow leopard roaring. As in roaring like a leopard. Wasnt that a trait of the genus Panthera or all cats can do it once they reach a certain size?"

AFAIK it's a panthera thing. Pumas don't do it, and little leopards do. It has to do with size and vocal cords both.
Edited by Scalesofanubis, Feb 2 2016, 03:25 AM.
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Taipan
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Cat scat: Research examines food habits of snow leopards

Date: August 4, 2016
Source: University of Delaware
Summary:
A new study finds researchers may have been missing the mark on the diet of endangered snow leopards. The findings suggest the leopards have been consuming larger, not smaller, species, and underscores the importance of verifying, through DNA testing, what endangered species need to survive.

Posted Image
Snow leopard (stock image).
Credit: © oakdalecat / Fotolia

In order to create effective conservation programs to help protect and conserve populations of endangered snow leopards, whose estimated population is between 4,500-7,500 in the wild, University of Delaware researchers are studying their scat to try and understand what the large cats are eating.

While studying snow leopard scat is one of the least invasive ways to look at what the animals are eating and gauge their food preferences, according to a new UD study it may not always be the most accurate. Researchers found that past food-habit studies on snow leopards could have been biased by the inclusion of non-target species in fecal analysis, potentially misinforming managers about the prey requirements that allow snow leopard populations to succeed.

The research was led by Sarah Weiskopf, who recently received her master's degree from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and who did the work as part of her undergraduate senior thesis; Kyle McCarthy, assistant professor of wildlife ecology; and Shannon Kachel, a graduate student who works with McCarthy. The findings were published in the Wildlife Society Bulletin.

As a result of non-target species possibly being included in past research studies, it has been thought that snow leopards -- who lack an abundance of natural prey -- consume great numbers of small mammals such as marmots, hares and pika, as well as wild ungulates, which are larger hooved animals such as ibex.

While estimates of the amount of small mammals snow leopards consume may have been overstated, the importance of large ungulate populations to the snow leopard's diets may have been understated, as this study suggests stable snow leopard populations are possibly more reliant upon large ungulate prey than previously understood.

"We've got this concept of what snow leopard scat looks like and where it can be found, so we think we can go out and collect it. A lot of old studies on what snow leopards eat are based on just that, collections that people have done in the wild," said McCarthy. "When we started doing genetics on snow leopard feces to try and get at a different question, which was individual identification of snow leopards, we started realizing that a lot of what we picked up and thought was snow leopard scat was not."

Weiskopf explained that a big problem with collecting and identifying scat in the field is that researchers mostly rely on morphological characteristics such as shape, size or associated signs of snow leopards, and since scat from different species can look similar, this can lead to misrepresented population estimates and errors in reporting what the snow leopards are actually eating.

"This can affect conservation plans because if snow leopards are eating more large ungulates, we need to make sure we're maintaining those large ungulate populations. Otherwise, a population of snow leopards might not survive because there's not enough prey, or they may start eating more domestic livestock, which can cause problems with local human populations. That could result in people going out and killing snow leopards in retribution," said Weiskopf.

The researchers wanted to look at the problem in a blind fashion, comparing their data sets of what they believed to be snow leopards and what those supposed snow leopards ate with a data set of snow leopard scat that was confirmed through genetic analysis to be from actual snow leopards.

"That's what we consider the bias in our food habit studies and that was the ultimate goal of Sarah's project -- to find out how far off we may have been in the past with what snow leopards eat and then ultimately refining our understanding of what they eat," said McCarthy.

The researchers analyzed 199 suspected snow leopard scat samples collected from two study sites in Tajikistan during the summer of 2012 and 56 scats collected from two study sites in Kyrgyzstan between June and December of 2005.

Overall, only 36.1 percent of collected scats thought to be from snow leopards were confirmed as snow leopard. The snow leopard samples were most often confused with red fox scat, which comprised 39.6 percent of collected samples.

"We don't want to overstate our results because this was just one study, but we did notice that if we were using the blind approach, we definitely had a lot more small mammal occurrence in those scats. When we used genetics to pre-screen the scat and find out which ones were actually snow leopard, there were many fewer small mammals in those scats," said McCarthy, who added that many of the small mammals consumed in the original blind data set were much more associated with red fox.

"It's a little bit of conjecture, but our thought is that a lot of food habit studies that have not been able to verify that their scat is actually from the species that they're studying probably do have this bias soaking in from other species," said McCarthy.

To determine what the snow leopards were actually eating, the researchers pulled hairs found in the samples and studied them on slides treated with nail polish.

"We looked at the whole hair under the microscope to see the medulla, which is the inner part of the hair. Then we pulled the hair off to look at the impression that was left in the nail polish to see the pattern on the outer part of the hair," said Weiskopf.

All hairs have a different scale pattern on them and the researchers could tell the individual species based on the scale pattern or the characteristics of the medulla.

The research was funded by a National Science Foundation Experimental Program to Stimulate Competative Research (EPSCoR) grant and the state of Delaware as well as the International Snow Leopard Trust, Kumtor Operating Company, Panthera Foundation and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Story Source: University of Delaware. "Cat scat: Research examines food habits of snow leopards." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160804153137.htm (accessed August 8, 2016).




Journal Reference:
Sarah R. Weiskopf, Shannon M. Kachel, Kyle P. McCarthy. What are snow leopards really eating? Identifying bias in food-habit studies. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 2016; 40 (2): 233 DOI: 10.1002/wsb.640

ABSTRACT
Declining prey populations are widely recognized as a primary threat to snow leopard (Panthera uncia) populations throughout their range. Effective snow leopard conservation will depend upon reliable knowledge of food habits. Unfortunately, past food-habit studies may be biased by inclusion of nontarget species in fecal analysis, potentially misinforming managers about snow leopard prey requirements. Differentiation between snow leopard and sympatric carnivore scat is now cost-effective and reliable using genetics. We used fecal mitochondrial DNA sequencing to identify scat depositors and assessment bias in snow leopard food-habit studies. We compared presumed, via field identification, and genetically confirmed snow leopard scats collected during 2005 and 2012 from 4 sites in Central Asia, using standard forensic microscopy to identify prey species. Field identification success varied across study sites, ranging from 21% to 64% genetically confirmed snow leopard scats. Our results confirm the importance of large ungulate prey for snow leopards. Studies that fail to account for potentially commonplace misidentification of snow leopard scat may mistakenly include a large percentage of scats originating from other carnivores and report inaccurate dietary assessments. Relying on field identification of scats led to overestimation of percent occurrence, biomass, and number of small mammals consumed, but underestimated values of these measures for large ungulates in snow leopard diet. This clarification suggests that the conservation value of secondary prey, such as marmots (Marmota spp.) and other small mammals, may be overstated in the literature; stable snow leopard populations are perhaps more reliant upon large ungulate prey than previously understood.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wsb.640/abstract;jsessionid=76E89770B56E96EB1023019E14E90C1C.f02t02
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Taipan
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One Snow Leopard Needs a Protected Range Bigger Than Aruba
The big cats' home territories are up to 44 times bigger than previously thought, a new study using GPS collars reveals.


Posted Image
A remote camera captures a snow leopard in the falling snow in Hemis National Park, India.
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVE WINTER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE

By Jason Bittel
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

The snow leopard is known as the “ghost of the mountain” for good reason. The big cats are secretive, few in number, and native to craggy, high-altitude habitats of Central Asia that can be treacherous for humans.

Now, technology advances have finally given scientists a solid glimpse into the world of these endangered felines, and led to one of the most robust studies ever conducted.

From 2008 to 2014, researchers working in the Tost Mountains of South Gobi, Mongolia, outfitted 16 snow leopards with GPS collars. The collars logged each cat’s location about four times a day for over a year.

The data suggest that the big cats require enormous home ranges, about 80 square miles for males and around 48 square miles for females—44 times larger than earlier estimates. This means a single adult male leopard must roam over an area larger than the Caribbean island of Aruba in search of food and mates, according to the study, published September 21 in the journal Biological Conservation.


Snow Leopards Tagged in Afghanistan—A First In spring, 2012 conservationists fitted snow leopards with satellite collars in Afghanistan for the first time. Since then, one of the big cats has already roamed more than a hundred miles.

“Previous studies had mostly assumed smaller home ranges, and of course that influences everything from population estimates to conservation strategies,” says study leader Örjan Johansson, a Ph.D. student at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, whose data came from an eight-year project funded partly by Snow Leopard Trust, SL Foundation Mongolia, and Panthera.

“These findings underline that we need a lot more information on the snow leopard.”

Big Predators Require Big Spaces

Johansson says he wasn’t surprised by the results: “If anything, I expected that snow leopards would have even larger home ranges,” he says.

That's because, unlike big cats that live in areas of great prey abundance—such as African lions—snow leopards live in 12 mountainous countries where large prey is few and far between. That means the animals might have to roam gargantuan distances between each meal in their search for Siberian ibex, argali sheep, and sometimes domestic goats.

This last prey item gets the cats into trouble with local herders. When snow leopards kill livestock, people often respond by hunting the predators. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists retaliatory killings as one of the snow leopard’s main threats. Fewer than 7,000 are left worldwide, according to the IUCN.

The new study also revealed that snow leopards—like most cats—are territorial, and will defend their home turf from other snow leopards of the same sex. So not only are their territories huge, they don't usually overlap.

Taking this new data into account, Johansson and colleagues discovered that 40 percent of the 170 protected areas found across the big cat's range are smaller than the space required by one adult male.

Even if you cut the new study’s home range estimates in half, just 22 percent of the protected areas could support 15 females, or the number required for a population to withstand the rate at which snow leopards are killed by herders.

“We may have to rethink how much space is needed for a viable snow leopard population,” says Johansson.

Unveiling the Snow Leopard

Independent zoologist Katey Duffey calls the new study’s findings very convincing, and notes how GPS is essential for studying elusive species with expansive ranges.

Previous research was conducted by VHF radio signal, which only works if scientists are able to keep up with the big cats on foot, says Duffey, who partners with the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and Irbis Mongolia Center.

A feat much easier said than done when you’re tracking an animal that can leap up to 50 feet at a time and scale cliffs. GPS technology, which relies upon satellites rather than human endurance, results in much more accurate estimates.

“It’s still a struggle to do snow leopard research, but the wealth of data that we can collect now would have taken decades earlier,” says study leader Johansson.

That makes studies like Johansson’s extremely important in understanding how to conserve the cats, Duffey adds.

“There's still so much that is unknown about snow leopards."

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/09/snow-leopards-huge-territories-asia/




Journal Reference
Örjan Johansson, Geir Rune Rauset, Gustaf Samelius, Tom McCarthy, Henrik Andrén, Lkhagvasumberel Tumursukh, Charudutt Mishra Land sharing is essential for snow leopard conservation Biological Conservation Volume 203, November 2016, Pages 1–7

Abstract
Conserving large carnivores in an increasingly crowded planet raises difficult challenges. A recurring debate is whether large carnivores can be conserved in human used landscapes (land sharing) or whether they require specially designated areas (land sparing). Here we show that 40% of the 170 protected areas in the global range of the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) are smaller than the home range of a single adult male and only 4–13% are large enough for a 90% probability of containing 15 or more adult females. We used data from 16 snow leopards equipped with GPS collars in the Tost Mountains of South Gobi, Mongolia, to calculate home range size and overlap using three different estimators: minimum convex polygons (MCP), kernel utility distributions (Kernel), and local convex hulls (LoCoH). Local convex hull home ranges were smaller and included lower proportions of unused habitats compared to home ranges based on minimum convex polygons and Kernels. Intra-sexual home range overlap was low, especially for adult males, suggesting that snow leopards are territorial. Mean home range size based on the LoCoH estimates was 207 km2 ± 63 SD for adult males and 124 km2 ± 41 SD for adult females. Our estimates were 6–44 times larger than earlier estimates based on VHF technology when comparing similar estimators, i.e. MCP. Our study illustrates that protected areas alone will not be able to conserve predators with large home ranges and conservationists and managers should not restrict their efforts to land sparing.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320716303457
Edited by Taipan, Sep 15 2017, 09:06 PM.
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Concerns over first snow and common leopards found in same area

By Navin Singh Khadka
Environment reporter, BBC World Service
1 hour ago

Posted Image
A snow leopard photographed in Qinghai province, China on 10 January 2016.
SHAN SHUI/PANTHERA/SLT/SEEF/GZC

Posted Image
A common leopard photographed in the same location in Qinghai province, China on 16 March 2016. This is the traditional habitat of the snow leopard

The first ever recorded video footage showing snow leopards and common leopards sharing the same habitat on the Tibetan plateau has caused concern among conservationists.
They are worried about the future of the snow leopard's habitat if common leopards begin to live at higher elevations in a warming climate.
The issue will be high on the agenda of an international meeting involving 12 snow leopard range countries starting in Nepal on Tuesday, 17 January.
The video was recently obtained from a camera trap in Qinghai province in China. It shows both cats at the same location in July 2016.
Wildlife experts say this is the first pictorial evidence of the two cats at the same place. The snow leopard is an endangered species.
One of the video clips from the camera trap shows a female common leopard with a cub.
This has made researchers think that the animal was not simply visiting the area but was actually living there.

Under threat

Snow leopards live at an altitude above 3,000m in typically open and rocky areas.
Common leopards' habitats include forests and woodlands at lower elevations.
Snow leopards are sparsely distributed across 12 countries - Mongolia and the Himalayan ranges in China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan, as well as in the five Central Asian states.
There are an estimated 3,500 to 7,000 snow leopards in the wild and they have been listed as endangered mainly because of poaching and habitat loss.
Scientists say the lower reaches of snow leopard's habitats and the upper limits of common leopards' territories have always overlapped in the Himalayas and other high mountains in Asia.
But, they add, climate change could make that more complicated.
"In a changing climate, we expect the tree line to move up the slopes and that's encroaching into the snow leopard's habitat," said Byron Weckworth, China programme director with Panthera, a conservation organisation dedicated to preserving wild cats.
Some studies have shown that the upper forest tree line is already being pushed higher.
They suggest that between 30% and 50% of the current snow leopard habitat in the Himalayas will be lost because of the shifting tree line and the shrinking of the alpine zone.
"The bigger threat is the snow leopards' habitat loss and its fragmentation," said Mr Weckworth, whose organisation has partnered with the Snow Leopard Trust and Chinese conservation organisation Shan Shui to monitor wildlife in China's Sanjiangyuan nature reserve.
Prof Sandro Lovari, from the University of Siena in Italy, was not involved in this research but has conducted separate studies on snow leopards.
He agrees with the loss of habitat projections.
"Snow leopards could be squeezed between the barren land of the higher parts of the mountain and the upward moving tree line," he said.
Wen Cheng from Shan Shui says the availability of food will be key.
"The possibility for co-existence or conflict highly depends on the abundance and diversity of wild prey," he said.
Prof Lovari's team conducted a study on snow leopards in the Sagarmatha National park in Nepal's Everest region in 2013.
They found that the common leopard had a greater habitat adaptability.

Posted Image
A common leopard caught on camera in a different part of Qinghai province, China, on 6 December 2015
SHAN SHUI/PANTHERA/SLT/SEEF/GZC

Posted Image
A snow leopard in its traditional habitat in Qinghai province, China on 4 March 2016.
SHAN SHUI/PANTHERA/SLT/SEEF/GZC

"This behaviour could enhance the [common leopard's] takeover of the snow leopard's habitat as it's the larger, more ecologically flexible species," Prof Lovari explained.
In Nepal's Annapurna and Kanchanjunga conservation areas too, common leopards have been recently found in altitudes that normally have been the territories of snow leopards.
Koustubh Sharma, an expert with the Snow Leopard Trust, said: "How are these two cat species already managing to live together - or will the interface be difficult when their habitats are changing with climate change?"
"The pictures from our camera trap make these questions more relevant and pressing."
While some conservationists fear that there might be conflicts between the two leopard species for habitat and prey, others think the two already co-exist in places where their territories overlap.
Mr Weckworth said their research team in China found locals believing that the two species could even mate.
"The common leopards there are more pale in colour and that may have sparked that kind of perception among locals. But from a biological point of view, it's extremely unlikely that they can hybridise," Mr Weckworth of the Panthera organisation added.
During his field study in Nepal's Sagarmatha National Park, Prof Lovari said he found male snow leopards coming down to the edge of the forested land during the mating period.
"But there is no information whatsoever on the hybridisation between common and snow leopards," he said.
"It would be very unlikely - even more unlikely than brown bears and polar bears."

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38610862
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hawkkeye
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Jan 17 2017, 02:43 PM
Concerns over first snow and common leopards found in same area

By Navin Singh Khadka
Environment reporter, BBC World Service
1 hour ago

Posted Image
A snow leopard photographed in Qinghai province, China on 10 January 2016.
SHAN SHUI/PANTHERA/SLT/SEEF/GZC

Posted Image
A common leopard photographed in the same location in Qinghai province, China on 16 March 2016. This is the traditional habitat of the snow leopard

The first ever recorded video footage showing snow leopards and common leopards sharing the same habitat on the Tibetan plateau has caused concern among conservationists.
They are worried about the future of the snow leopard's habitat if common leopards begin to live at higher elevations in a warming climate.
The issue will be high on the agenda of an international meeting involving 12 snow leopard range countries starting in Nepal on Tuesday, 17 January.
The video was recently obtained from a camera trap in Qinghai province in China. It shows both cats at the same location in July 2016.
Wildlife experts say this is the first pictorial evidence of the two cats at the same place. The snow leopard is an endangered species.
One of the video clips from the camera trap shows a female common leopard with a cub.
This has made researchers think that the animal was not simply visiting the area but was actually living there.

Under threat

Snow leopards live at an altitude above 3,000m in typically open and rocky areas.
Common leopards' habitats include forests and woodlands at lower elevations.
Snow leopards are sparsely distributed across 12 countries - Mongolia and the Himalayan ranges in China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan, as well as in the five Central Asian states.
There are an estimated 3,500 to 7,000 snow leopards in the wild and they have been listed as endangered mainly because of poaching and habitat loss.
Scientists say the lower reaches of snow leopard's habitats and the upper limits of common leopards' territories have always overlapped in the Himalayas and other high mountains in Asia.
But, they add, climate change could make that more complicated.
"In a changing climate, we expect the tree line to move up the slopes and that's encroaching into the snow leopard's habitat," said Byron Weckworth, China programme director with Panthera, a conservation organisation dedicated to preserving wild cats.
Some studies have shown that the upper forest tree line is already being pushed higher.
They suggest that between 30% and 50% of the current snow leopard habitat in the Himalayas will be lost because of the shifting tree line and the shrinking of the alpine zone.
"The bigger threat is the snow leopards' habitat loss and its fragmentation," said Mr Weckworth, whose organisation has partnered with the Snow Leopard Trust and Chinese conservation organisation Shan Shui to monitor wildlife in China's Sanjiangyuan nature reserve.
Prof Sandro Lovari, from the University of Siena in Italy, was not involved in this research but has conducted separate studies on snow leopards.
He agrees with the loss of habitat projections.
"Snow leopards could be squeezed between the barren land of the higher parts of the mountain and the upward moving tree line," he said.
Wen Cheng from Shan Shui says the availability of food will be key.
"The possibility for co-existence or conflict highly depends on the abundance and diversity of wild prey," he said.
Prof Lovari's team conducted a study on snow leopards in the Sagarmatha National park in Nepal's Everest region in 2013.
They found that the common leopard had a greater habitat adaptability.

Posted Image
A common leopard caught on camera in a different part of Qinghai province, China, on 6 December 2015
SHAN SHUI/PANTHERA/SLT/SEEF/GZC

Posted Image
A snow leopard in its traditional habitat in Qinghai province, China on 4 March 2016.
SHAN SHUI/PANTHERA/SLT/SEEF/GZC

"This behaviour could enhance the [common leopard's] takeover of the snow leopard's habitat as it's the larger, more ecologically flexible species," Prof Lovari explained.
In Nepal's Annapurna and Kanchanjunga conservation areas too, common leopards have been recently found in altitudes that normally have been the territories of snow leopards.
Koustubh Sharma, an expert with the Snow Leopard Trust, said: "How are these two cat species already managing to live together - or will the interface be difficult when their habitats are changing with climate change?"
"The pictures from our camera trap make these questions more relevant and pressing."
While some conservationists fear that there might be conflicts between the two leopard species for habitat and prey, others think the two already co-exist in places where their territories overlap.
Mr Weckworth said their research team in China found locals believing that the two species could even mate.
"The common leopards there are more pale in colour and that may have sparked that kind of perception among locals. But from a biological point of view, it's extremely unlikely that they can hybridise," Mr Weckworth of the Panthera organisation added.
During his field study in Nepal's Sagarmatha National Park, Prof Lovari said he found male snow leopards coming down to the edge of the forested land during the mating period.
"But there is no information whatsoever on the hybridisation between common and snow leopards," he said.
"It would be very unlikely - even more unlikely than brown bears and polar bears."

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38610862
Why it would be unlikely for them to hybridize? Yes, there are behavioral barriers between big cats because of which they won´t hybridize in the wild now (but they did it in the past). And in captivity, most of the hybridize easily. And hybridization between polar and brown bear isn´t unlikely, but they do it even in nature.
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Snow leopard and Himalayan wolf diets are about one-quarter livestock
Predation analysis has implications for conservation and management


Date: February 8, 2017
Source: PLOS

Around a quarter of Himalayan snow leopard and wolf diets are livestock, the rest being wild prey, according to a study published February 8, 2017 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Madhu Chetri from Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway, and colleagues.

Killing livestock creates conflicts between top predators and pastoral communities, and is a main challenge for conserving snow leopards, which are endangered, and Himalayan wolves, which are rare. These wolves prefer the open grasslands and alpine meadows that are also frequented by pastoral herders, and snow leopards prefer the steep terrain associated with montane pastures. To assess prey preferences of these carnivores, Chetri and colleagues analyzed DNA and hairs in 182 snow leopard scats and 57 wolf scats collected in the Central Himalayas, Nepal.

The researchers found that in keeping with the predators' habitats, snow leopards preferred cliff-dwelling wild prey such as bharal, while wolves preferred plain-dwelling wild prey such as Tibetan gazelles. In addition, livestock comprised 27% of the snow leopard diet and 24% of the wolf diet. Livestock occurred more than twice as frequently in scats from male snow leopards than in scats from females. Although livestock constitutes a substantial proportion of the predator's diets, little is known about the actual predation impact on the pastoral communities. Hence, the researchers' forthcoming work focuses on estimating livestock mortality rates and identifying factors associated with livestock loss.

Story Source: PLOS. "Snow leopard and Himalayan wolf diets are about one-quarter livestock: Predation analysis has implications for conservation and management." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170208150200.htm (accessed February 8, 2017).




Journal Reference:
Madhu Chetri, Morten Odden, Per Wegge. Snow Leopard and Himalayan Wolf: Food Habits and Prey Selection in the Central Himalayas, Nepal. PLOS ONE, 2017; 12 (2): e0170549 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170549

Abstract
Top carnivores play an important role in maintaining energy flow and functioning of the ecosystem, and a clear understanding of their diets and foraging strategies is essential for developing effective conservation strategies. In this paper, we compared diets and prey selection of snow leopards and wolves based on analyses of genotyped scats (snow leopards n = 182, wolves n = 57), collected within 26 sampling grid cells (5×5 km) that were distributed across a vast landscape of ca 5000 km2 in the Central Himalayas, Nepal. Within the grid cells, we sampled prey abundances using the double observer method. We found that interspecific differences in diet composition and prey selection reflected their respective habitat preferences, i.e. snow leopards significantly preferred cliff-dwelling wild ungulates (mainly bharal, 57% of identified material in scat samples), whereas wolves preferred typically plain-dwellers (Tibetan gazelle, kiang and argali, 31%). Livestock was consumed less frequently than their proportional availability by both predators (snow leopard = 27%; wolf = 24%), but significant avoidance was only detected among snow leopards. Among livestock species, snow leopards significantly preferred horses and goats, avoided yaks, and used sheep as available. We identified factors influencing diet composition using Generalized Linear Mixed Models. Wolves showed seasonal differences in the occurrence of small mammals/birds, probably due to the winter hibernation of an important prey, marmots. For snow leopard, occurrence of both wild ungulates and livestock in scats depended on sex and latitude. Wild ungulates occurrence increased while livestock decreased from south to north, probably due to a latitudinal gradient in prey availability. Livestock occurred more frequently in scats from male snow leopards (males: 47%, females: 21%), and wild ungulates more frequently in scats from females (males: 48%, females: 70%). The sexual difference agrees with previous telemetry studies on snow leopards and other large carnivores, and may reflect a high-risk high-gain strategy among males.
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Attached File Snow_Leopard_and_Himalayan_Wolf__Food_Habits_and_Prey_Selection_in_the_Central_Himalayas__Nepal.pdf (1.7 MB)
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Three new sub-species of snow leopard discovered

May 11, 2017

Posted Image
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A recent research paper in the Journal of Heredity reveals that there are three sub-species of snow leopard. Until now, researchers had assumed this species, Panthera uncia, was monotypic.
Studying snow leopard scat from wildlife trails and marking sites revealed three primary genetic clusters, differentiated by geographical location: the Northern group, Panthera uncia irbis, found in the Altai region, the Central group, Panthera uncia uncioides, found in the core Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau, and the Western group, Panthera uncia uncia, found in the Tian Shan, Pamir, and trans-Himalaya regions. This is the first range-wide genetic analysis of wild snow leopard populations.
The snow leopard is considered the world's most elusive large big cat and inhabits a vast area of around 1.6 million km2 across 12 countries in Asia. It is a high-altitude specialist that primarily occupies mountains above 3,000m in elevation, a habitat characterized by low oxygen levels, low productivity, temperature extremes, aridity, and harsh climactic conditions. The snow leopard is the largest carnivore in its high-altitude habitat in many areas and is under substantial threat throughout its range.
The snow leopard remains the last of the five big cats to be the subject of a comprehensive subspecies assessment. This gap in research is a direct result of three challenges: the snow leopard inhabits remote regions that are often politically unstable and therefore harder to access, opportunities for radio or GPS tracking are limited because snow leopards are difficult to observe and trap in the wild, and most founders of the captive snow leopard population have an unknown origin.
Genetic sampling via the collection of scat along wildlife trails and marking sites is a non-invasive, effective, and efficient way to survey snow leopard populations and has become an important research approach, replacing previous methods which primarily relied on samples from hunter harvested or captive animals, tracking studies, or museum specimens.
The patterns of variation amongst the snow leopard subspecies suggest a 'barrier effect' due to the desert basins in the area, with the northern subspecies isolated by the Gobi Desert and the central and western species divided by the trans-Himalayas. Follow-up studies are needed to perform additional genetic analyses to provide more information on connectivity and structure within each region.
Dr Janecka explains that "This study is important as it provides the first glimpse of how snow leopard populations are structured and connected, in a nutshell, populations that are connected with other populations, are more stable and have a greater chance of persisting. Delineating subspecies provides two main benefits. The first is a better understanding of the evolution and ecology of the species. The second is that it enables more flexible conservation measures, so plans can be developed specific to the challenges faced within a particular region. Our study highlights the need for transboundary initiatives to protect this species, and other wildlife in Asia."

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-05-sub-species-leopard.html#jCp




Journal Reference:
Jan E. Janecka et. al. Range-Wide Snow Leopard Phylogeography Supports Three Subspecies, Journal Of Heredity (2017). academic.oup.com/jhered/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/jhered/esx044

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-05-sub-species-leopard.html#jCp

Abstract
The snow leopard, Panthera uncia, is an elusive high-altitude specialist that inhabits vast, inaccessible habitat across Asia. We conducted the first range-wide genetic assessment of snow leopards based on noninvasive scat surveys. Thirty-three microsatellites were genotyped and a total of 683-bp of mitochondrial DNA sequenced in 70 individuals. Snow leopards exhibited low genetic diversity at microsatellites (AN = 5.8, HO = 0.433, HE = 0.568), virtually no mtDNA variation, and underwent a bottleneck in the Holocene (~8,000 years ago) coinciding with increased temperatures, precipitation, and upward treeline shift in the Tibetan Plateau. Multiple analyses supported three primary genetic clusters: (1) Northern (the Altai region), (2) Central (core Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau), and (3) Western (Tian Shan, Pamir, trans-Himalaya regions). Accordingly, we recognize three subspecies, P. u. irbis (Northern group), P. u. uncia (Western group), and P. u. uncioides (Central group) based upon genetic distinctness, low levels of admixture, unambiguous population assignment, and geographic separation. The patterns of variation were consistent with desert-basin "barrier effects" of the Gobi isolating the northern subspecies (Mongolia), and the trans-Himalaya dividing the central (Qinghai, Tibet, Bhutan, and Nepal) and western subspecies (India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan). Hierarchical Bayesian clustering analysis revealed additional subdivision into a minimum of six proposed management units: western Mongolia, southern Mongolia, Tian Shan, Pamir-Himalaya, Tibet-Himalaya, and Qinghai, with spatial autocorrelation suggesting potential connectivity by dispersing individuals up to ~ 400 km. We provide a foundation for global conservation of snow leopard subspecies, and set the stage for in-depth landscape genetics and genomic studies.
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Snow leopard no longer 'endangered'

14 September 2017

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Scientists are emphasising that the big cats' new status does not mean they are safe from extinction

Has the chilling threat of extinction worn off at last for the long-endangered snow leopard?
Not exactly - but the iconic big cats' conservation status has been improved from "endangered" to "vulnerable".
The decision was announced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) - the global standard for assessing extinction risk.
Experts have warned that the species still faces serious threats from poaching and habitat destruction.
The elegant yet elusive creatures, which live in the mountains of central Asia, were first listed as endangered by the IUCN in 1972.

The status change followed a three-year assessment process by five international experts.
Dr Tom McCarthy, who runs the Snow Leopard Programme at big cat charity Panthera, was one of them.
"To be considered 'endangered,' there must be fewer than 2,500 mature snow leopards and they must be experiencing a high rate of decline," he explained.
"Both are now considered extremely unlikely, which is the good news, but it does not mean that snow leopards are 'safe' or that now is a time to celebrate.
"The species still faces 'a high risk of extinction in the wild', and is likely still declining - just not at the rate previously thought."

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A baby snow leopard pictured at the Tierpark zoo in Berlin

Being classed as "vulnerable" means a species has under 10,000 breeding animals left, with a population decline of at least 10% over three generations.
The Snow Leopard Trust, which aims to protect the big cat through community projects, strongly opposes the status change. It plans to challenge the decision with the IUCN.
"We believe it could have serious consequences for the species," it wrote in a blog post.
Snow leopard researchers believe the species' decline may have been slowed by conservation projects - including some to protect farm animals from the predators, which are sometimes killed in revenge for livestock losses.
The number of protected areas within the snow leopards' habitat has also increased significantly in recent decades.

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Snow leopard stats

  • The rarely-sighted cats live in the craggy peaks of central Asia - including the Himalayas, and Russia's remote Altai mountains
  • Their habitat covers more than 1.8 million sq km / 694,980 sq miles, across 12 countries
  • Scientists say they are threatened by poaching for their fur, infrastructure developments, and climate change
  • Usually found at elevations of 3,000-4,500m (11,480-14,760ft)
  • Solitary creatures, they usually hunt at dawn and dusk and are able to kill prey up to three times their own weight
  • Mostly feed on wild animals, but will also prey on livestock
  • Their spotted coats change with the seasons - from a thick, white fur to keep them warm and camouflaged in winter, to a fine yellow-grey coat in summer
  • Retaliatory killings by farmers are not uncommon, but are rarely reported

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41270646
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Rare Snow Leopard Kills Sheep in First-Ever Photographs
In November, a photographer got quite a shock while trekking the Tibetan Plateau in western China.


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A snow leopard tears into a blue sheep in November. The animal waited several hours for the sun to set before consuming its meal.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JED WEINGARTEN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE

By Carrie Arnold
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 20, 2017

The sudden movement caught Jed Weingarten’s eye.

A streak of brown on brown cut through the still, frigid morning on the Tibetan Plateau in China’s Szechuan Province, where the American photographer had been trekking in search of deer and sheep.

He didn't expect to see a snow leopard, but right there in front of him was one of the world’s rarest and most mysterious big cats.

Even more surprising, the predator was rolling a Himalayan blue sheep down a steep, rocky cliff, a strategy that ultimately led to a hard-earned meal.

“I was totally overcome with excitement. It’s so rare and such an opportunity,” says Weingarten, the first photographer to capture a snow leopard killing a blue sheep.

TOUGH SHOT

A frequent traveler to the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau, Weingarten has spent months of his life combing the rough terrain in search of the snow leopard—but to no avail.

That’s not surprising, since the cats are extraordinarily well camouflaged and tend to spend their time among inaccessible cliffs, says Peter Zahler, leader of the Snow Leopard Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

For his November 2017 expedition, Weingarten was filming a documentary series on the white-lipped deer rut.

Looking for the deer through a spotting scope, Weingarten saw the snow leopard stalking a group of blue sheep. He immediately moved toward a cliff where the leopard would likely chase the prey.

“We moved up slowly, so we wouldn’t scare it. But with 50 pounds of gear at 15,000 feet, slow is pretty much the only way I could move anyway,” Weingarten says, laughing.

AGILE CAT

The snow leopard’s hunt that day was unsuccessful, but Weingarten knew that with an empty belly and ample prey nearby, the big cat wouldn’t have gone far.

His team returned to the same spot the next day before dawn and waited. They didn’t have long until the snow leopard again went after a herd of blue sheep.

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The snow leopard and the sheep tumbled more than 660 vertical feet down the slope during the attack, according to Weingarten.
“My camera shutter was just going nonstop,” Weingarten says.

At first, he thought the leopard and sheep were rolling together down the slope, but when Weingarten reviewed the photographs and video footage, he realized the leopard pushed the sheep down, leaping back and forth to disorient the animal until it could make the final kill.

“It was an amazing display of agility and athleticism,” he says.

This new insight into hunting manuevers is one of the reasons that Zahler finds Weingarten’s encounter so exciting.

“These are great photos, and any information we can get is better than what we’ve got,” says Zahler, who adds that scientists could return to that location to study the predators.

FELINES IN DECLINE

Camera traps have helped researchers gather some information about snow leopards, but even some of the most basic information, such as the total number of animals in the wild, remains unclear.

Zahler says that the wild population is likely between 4,000 to 10,000 individuals.

In 2017, higher population estimates caused the International Union for Conservation of Nature to upgrade snow leopards from endangered to vulnerable to extinction.

It’s a positive sign, Zahler said, but the future of these little-seen felines is far from secure.

“Their numbers are still going down. They’re just not going down as quickly."

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/12/big-cats-snow-leopards-animals-rare/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20171220news-snowleopardsheep&utm_campaign=Content&sf176894514=1
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Research suggests low density of snow leopards in Nepal`s Conservation Area

Date: March 22, 2018
Source: INASP

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Researchers counting blue sheep.
Credit: Image courtesy of INASP

The snow leopard is a mammal species of the cat family found at high altitudes in Nepal and other countries around the Himalayan range. However, it has been included in the vulnerable category of IUCN Red list of threatened species in recent years for various reasons.

A recent research article published in the journal Banko Janakari suggests that the snow leopard density in the Manaslu region of the country is low despite abundant prey density and cooperation from humans in its conservation.

"We conducted the research in the Manaslu conservation areas because there had been limited studies in this region in the past," says Bishnu Devkota, lead author of the article. "Our research re-established the generally accepted and proven fact that the snow leopard population is dwindling in protected and unprotected regions of Nepal."

The study, which was carried out by laying 14 transects with a total distance of 8.12 kilometres in the Manaslu Conservation Area located in Gorkha district, 200km north-west of the capital Kathmandu, found 3.57 signs per kilometre which indicates a low snow leopard density.

"It is difficult to spot the snow leopard directly as it is a shy animal. We estimated the abundance of snow leopards in a particular area by observing their signs such as scats, pugmarks and scrapes," explains Devkota.

"However, the population of the prey species was high enough to support a larger population of snow leopard," he adds. Blue sheep, Himalayan Tahr, musk deer, Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana), Himalayan serow, hare (Lepus oiostolus), Royle's pika (Ochotona roylei) and impeyan pheasant (Lophophorus impejanus) were found to be the main prey species for snow leopard in Manaslu region.

High prey density also meant human-animal conflict in the region. "The locals of the region took the snow leopard as the pet of gods, and they were very cooperative in the conservation of snow leopard," says Mr Devkota. However, conservationists cannot fully rely on the present behaviour of the locals towards the snow leopard for sustainable conservation.

"At present, probably due to ample presence of food in the wild, the snow leopard is not a threat to the domesticated livestock. However, if snow leopards start attacking the livestock, then it is likely that the locals will turn against conservation efforts of snow leopards," says Devkota.

The study was conducted in Chhekampar Village Development Committee in northern Gorkha district, which falls in the Manaslu conservation area. The conservation area was closed to foreign tourists until 1991. Following the opening up of the conservation area for tourists, many tourists have been visiting the area. The snow leopard, along with other wild animals, is one of the attractions for tourists visiting the area.

Mr Devkota says further research is required in the region, which can take the findings of the present research as base data, and also plan for incentive programmes to maintain the positive attitude of locals towards snow leopard conservation.

Disclaimer: Research published in journals hosted on the NepJOL platform is selected by the journals in accordance with their own editorial processes and criteria. INASP and Tribhuvan University Central Library provide hosting and guidance on good practices but are not involved in selection of research.

Story Source: INASP. "Research suggests low density of snow leopards in Nepal`s Conservation Area." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180322113051.htm (accessed March 22, 2018).




Journal Reference:
B. P. Devkota, T. Silwal, B. P. Shrestha, A. P. Sapkota, S. P. Lakhey, V. K. Yadav. Abundance of snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and its wild prey in Chhekampar VDC, Manaslu Conservation Area, Nepal. Banko Janakari, 2017; 27 (1): 11 DOI: 10.3126/banko.v27i1.18545

Abstract
Snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is the striking symbol as well as an indicator of intact eco-regions of high mountains it inhabits. Despite the advancement in new methods, scholars argue that signs are still a reliable indicator for the purpose of habitat use study of snow leopards. The relative abundance of snow leopard and its major prey species such as blue sheep (Pseudois nayar) and Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus) in the Chhekampar Village Development Committee within the Tsum Valley of the Manaslu Conservation Area was determined by sign survey using Snow Leopard Information Management System (SLIMS) and block survey using Vantage Point Method, respectively. We also assessed human snow leopard conflict through household and key informant survey. The encounter rate of snow leopard signs were 3.57/km on an average, indicating low abundance, whereas prey species such as blue sheep and Himalayan tahr had 3.8 and 1.8 animals/km2, respectively. The livestock depredation rate was 1.29% with snow leopard accounting to only 0.32% of the total. Due to the low abundance of snow leopard but sufficient number of large-sized wild prey species, livestock predation by snow leopard was minimum, and therefore, the local people had positive perception towards snow leopard conservation. Though the present situation including the local religious tradition and social norms is supportive in conservation of snow leopard, it may not sustain unless incentive programs are encouraged timely.
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Buddhist Monks Help Save Snow Leopards

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CURWOOD: Well, as Ari Daniel argues, faith and reason can be complementary - and perhaps together they can achieve successes impossible to either of them separately. One example of that may be playing out at the moment at the top of the world - in the high mountains of Central Asia. That's the habitat of the snow leopard, one of the world's most endangered big cats. But there might be hope for them in a new partnership between the conservation group Panthera, and the Chinese environmental organization Shan Shui. Snow leopards at night (photo: Panthera) Shan Shui means "mountain water" and the groups are turning their eyes to the mountains for conservation help from Buddhist monks. Tom McCarthy is the Executive Director of Panthera and he joins us now from Seattle to explain how the monks are helping and why the leopards are so threatened. Camera trap photo of a snow leopard on the Tibetan plateau (photo: Panthera)

MCCARTHY: Globally the snow leopard range extends over a very large swath of central Asia, about two million square kilometers. Across that entire area, there could be as few as 3,500 snow leopards remaining today, optimistically we might say its as high as 7,000 remaining. They are considered endangered all across the range, and they're on the red list of every country in which they occur ,which is 12, and they're protected by several international treaties as well.


CURWOOD: What are the major threats?

MCCARTHY: There's several really. One of the most serious ones is retribution killing for loss of livestock. Snow leopards are predators, and they are not immune from coming down and taking herders livestock whether its sheep, goats, yaks, and most of the people that live in snow leopard range they're very poor, semi-nomadic or nomadic herders whose entire life is pretty much tied up with their livestock. So when a snow leopard or any other predator takes one, it has a pretty large economic impact on them, so they're somewhat inclined to go out and kill the snow leopard. So that's one of the biggest concerns that we have. Another one is loss of natural prey. They normally eat wild sheep and goats in the mountains, and when populations of those decline for whatever reasons, whether they're poached, or whether there's competition with livestock, and their numbers go down, then snow leopards of course turn to livestock, so you kind of have a vicious circle going there. And, of course, snow leopard hides, pelts and their bones are very very valuable on the black markets across the region.

Their bones are highly valued in traditional Asian medicine so a lot of them, so a lot of them are killed simply for economic reasons. Dr. Tom McCarthy and Yin Hang (Shan Shui) discuss snow leopard monitoring methods using GPS and other technology with Buddhist monks. (photo: Panthera)


CURWOOD: How much is the pelt of a snow leopard worth?

MCCARTHY: Well, it depends on which part of the market chain you're on. A local herder might get $50 to $100, maybe $200 for it. On the other end, when it hits Eastern European fur markets, you know, it could be in the thousands. But thats nothing compared to what a single set of snow leopard bones is worth on the medicinal markets, which a single snow leopard could bring up to $10,000 just for its bones. Yin Hang, Zhala Jiagong, author Li Juan and Panthera VP, Dr. George Schaller, join monks to worship at their sacred mountain and holy lakes near Xiari Monastery in Qumalai County, Qinghai Province. (photo: Panthera)

CURWOOD: So, Tom, your organization, Panthera, has enlisted the services of Buddhist monks to help conserve the snow leopard. Can you describe this program for us please?

MCCARTHY: Yes. Correct. It actually came from a PhD research project of a Chinese graduate student, and she was first out trying to document the occurrence of snow leopards across a very large portion of the Tibetan plateau in Qinghai province, and one of the things in mapping their occurrence that she happened to notice was that snow leopard range corresponded very closely to where most Buddhist monasteries were in the region. The upper Yangtze curve beside a sacred mountain of Xiari Monastey (photo: Panthera) Around each of the Buddhist monasteries, there's a number of sacred mountains, sacred lakes that they routinely patrol to keep people from violating any of their regulations or for killing any animals. And so she kind of put two and two together and already knowing that Buddhists have such a high reverence for life, that if those Buddhist monks in snow leopards habitat could be assisted just a little bit in the role that they already played in protecting nature in general, that it would probably be a very positive situation. So our partners at ShanShui, the conservation organization, went out and formed a partnership initially with four different monasteries, and what Panthera and Shan Shui do is provide the monasteries with a little bit of extra training, some of the basic tools that they need to do snow leopard monitoring, so now they can go out and not only protect snow leopards, but also count snow leopards. They do an awfully good job of talking to their followers about protecting snow leopards and the value of snow leopards in the ecosystem, and the end result is we have a much stronger conservation ethic being imparted to the people across the plateau through the Tibetan monks.


CURWOOD: Whats it like to be out on patrol with these monks?

MCCARTHY: Oh, its great to see people that already have such a wonderful love for all nature. A lot of these folks spend a great deal of time out there. They're very inquisitive, they're very knowledgeable, they're taking pictures, they're using video cameras. They're learning to document where snow leopards occur using specialized camera traps that we provide them - the infrared detecting motion-sensing camera traps.

So they'll put those out around the monasteries, and then they can get photographs of the snow leopards and help count the snow leopards that they are there to save, and that also works out as a very valuable educational tool, because then they can show their followers, the snow leopards that are right there in their own surroundings, and so that really heightens the villagers awareness, and their appreciation for snow leopards. Monks test camera traps set on the Tibetan Plateau to monitor snow leopard populations. (photo: Panthera)


CURWOOD: How do local people respond to the monks?

MCCARTHY: Very positively, in the cases that we've seen. Now, going back to one of the threats that we had with snow leopards which is loss of livestock due to depredation by the cats - the monks recognize this as well. In fact, a couple of years ago, there was an instance where three snow leopards - a female and her two nearly grown offspring - came into the village and killed several livestock, and the villagers killed all three snow leopards. Camera trap photo of a snow leopard on the Tibetan plateau (photo: Panthera) Well, recognizing that that was a natural thing for them to do because of the great economic loss, they helped by instituting a livestock insurance program where the monks put their own money and effort in to create this program. Now the individual herders can insure their yaks for just a few pennies each, and if any of them are killed by a snow leopard, then they're compensated for that out of the insurance proceeds. So the monks have helped in a number of ways. They help by enforcing, they help by preaching their religion and their love for all life, and they help by setting up these economic programs that help people when they are impacted by snow leopards. Snow Leopard (photo: Steve Winter)


CURWOOD: A Buddhist insurance company, huh?

MCCARTHY: Yes, exactly.


CURWOOD: How much is this effort helping to save the endangered snow leopard do you think?

MCCARTHY: Well, we know within the villages where we currently have the livestock insurance program, there have been no snow leopards killed in the last two to three years. And we know as we expand that, and we have plans to really expand that over the next couple of years, that we should see the same types of results. Snow Leopard (photo: Steve Winter) This is very early in the process, so were positive the outcomes will be great. We cant point to anything more at this point besides positive movement in attitudes of the local people. And I think that's really brought out by these festivals they have each year, and a few years ago, one of those was attracting 10,000 to 12,000 people, and now its attracting up to 50,000 people a year where the senior monks get everyone there to pledge to save snow leopards for the rest of the lives. That's big. That's bigger than anything I could do with any type of conservation program that I'm aware of. Buddhism is practiced across a huge percentage of snow leopard range, and so that means we've got an awfully big potential for expanding this program to other places, and we would have these natural partners in snow leopard conservation, impacting a very large percentage of the snow leopard population for us. Snow Leopard (photo: Steve Winter)


CURWOOD: By the way, Tom, typically western environmental activists don't use religion as a tool for conservation. What lessons might they be able to learn from your experience?

MCCARTHY: Well, I think this is a good example of when you link the positive attitudes that various religions have for nature with good sound science that you could come up with conservation programs that have a very substantial impact, and you're right, I don't think here in the west we always take advantage of that, and I'm certainly not a student of religions, but to the extent that I know it many of them have strong teachings about the value of nature, and I just don't think that in most cases we've melded the science and the conservation and the religious ethics in a way that creates positive conservation programs like what were seeing on the Tibetan Plateau.


CURWOOD: Tom McCarthy is the Executive Director of Panthera. Thank you so much. Tom McCarthy (photo: Panthera)

MCCARTHY: You bet.


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