Month: June 2008

Foreigners threaten Afghan snow leopards

By Jonathon Burch

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s snow leopards have barely survived three decades of war. But now the few remaining mountain leopards left in Afghanistan face another threat — foreigners involved in rebuilding the war-torn country.

Despite a complete hunting ban across Afghanistan since 2002, snow leopard furs regularly end up for sale on international military bases and at tourist bazaars in the capital. Foreigners have ready cash to buy the pelts as souvenirs and impoverished Afghans break poaching laws to supply them.

Tucked between souvenir stores on Chicken Street, Kabul’s main tourist trap, several shops sell fur coats and pelts taken from many of Afghanistan’s threatened and endangered animals.

“This one is only $300 (151 pounds),” one shopkeeper told Reuters, producing a snow leopard pelt from the back of his shop.

“It was shot several times,” he said pointing to the patches of fur sewn together. “The better ones are only shot once. The skin remains intact,” he says as his assistant brings out a larger pelt, this time with no patches. “This one is $900.”

All the shopkeepers said they had more pelts at home and that they had sold furs to foreigners over the past few weeks.

Asked if it was easy to send the furs back home, one shopkeeper who did not want to be named said: “No problem! We hide the fur inside blankets and send it back to your country.”

Snow leopards along with several other animals in Afghanistan are listed as endangered or threatened under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Anyone caught knowingly transporting a fur across an international border is liable to a large fine. In the United States, it could result in a $100,000 fine and one year jail term.

It is hard to know the exact numbers of snow leopards left in Afghanistan due to the creatures’ elusive nature and the lack of any case studies during the last three decades of conflict, said Dr. Peter Smallwood, Afghanistan country director for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

But what is known is that the snow leopard is endangered.

“If you look historically at Afghanistan, Afghanistan actually had more big cat species than the entire continent of Africa,” said Clayton Miller, Environmental Advisor to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
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First ever long-term ecological study of snow leopards underway

JUNE 11: The Snow Leopard Trust (SLT) today announced the successful launch of a new long-term study of snow leopards with the establishment of the J. Tserendeleg Snow Leopard Research Center in Mongolia’s South Gobi Province. Located in the Tost mountains, approximately 250 km west of the provincial capital of Dalanzadgad, the research center is situated in some of Mongolia’s best snow leopard habitat. SLT has had
active conservation programs in this area for nearly a decade.

Today the research center consists of a modest 3 gers (yurts) but is already home to an international team of scientists and graduate students from Mongolia, India, USA, and Argentina. A Ph.D. student from Sweden will join the team next month. The center will be staffed year-round. Several local residents will be employed to provide logistical support and serve as field assistants on the various study components.

The research facility is named for one of Mongolia’s most respected conservationists, the late J. Tserendeleg, who was instrumental in establishing the first radio-collaring study of snow leopards in Mongolia in the early 1990s in collaboration with George Schaller and Tom McCarthy. “We can’t think of a better way to honor the man who did so much for snow leopard conservation in our country”, said Bayarjargal, Director of the Snow Leopard Conservation Fund (SLT’s Mongolian affiliate). Over the next 10 to 15 years the research
facility is expected to grow and eventually include an information center for local people and tourists, as well as a training/education center that will host scientists and graduate students from around the region. Despite its remote location the facility will be state-of-the-art from the outset. Already internet capable, the facility will also be fully solar powered by the end of this summer.

The first team of scientists is already busy conducting camera trapping and genetics studies. Methods testing will be a primary task of researchers at the facility and a Mongolian graduate student will be evaluating occupancy surveys as an alternative to ‘SLIMS’ sign transects, that have proven unreliable for monitoring snow leopard numbers, as the subject her thesis research this summer.

The most ambitious undertaking this year will be the initiation of GPS collaring of snow leopards in July. The new generation of collars the team will deploy uses satellite phone technology to uplink multiple GPS locations a day for each collared cat. This technology was selected to overcome problems related to failures of Argos-based uplinks for numerous collared species in the country. The findings from this collaring
project will add greatly to our knowledge of snow leopards, especially when viewed in conjunction with a similar study that will be initiated by the Snow Leopard Conservancy elsewhere in Mongolia later this summer. The two studies are complimentary and will share data for the betterment of the species.

The long-term study in South Gobi is a collaborative effort of the Snow Leopard Trust, Snow Leopard Conservation Fund, the Mongolian Ministry of Nature and Environment, the Mongolian Institute of Biology, Felidae Conservation Fund, Panthera, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Regular reports will be posted to the SLN listserve and on the websites of many of the collaborating organizations.

For more information contact: Tom McCarthy, Science and Conservation Director, SLT.
tom@snowleopard.org www.snowleopard.org