Author: Rakhee Karumbaya

New Article to the Bibliography

Please find details below of a new article added to our Bibliography:

Title: Modeling Habitat Suitability of Snow Leopards in Yanchiwan National Reserve, China

Author: Ismaili, R. R. R., Peng, X., Li., Y, Ali, A., Ahmad, T., Rahman, A. U., Ahmad, S., Shi, K.

Abstract:  Snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are elusive predators inhabiting high-altitude and mountainous rugged habitats. The current study was conducted in the Yanchiwan National Nature Reserve, Gansu Province, China, to assess the habitat suitability of snow leopards and identify key environmental factors inducing their distribution. Field data collected between 2019 and 2022 through scat sampling and camera trapping techniques provided insights into snow leopard habitat preferences. Spatial distribution and cluster analyses show distinct hotspots of high habitat suitability, mostly concentrated near mountainous landscapes. While altitude remains a critical determinant, with places above 3300 m showing increased habitat suitability, other factors such as soil type, human footprint, forest cover, prey availability, and human disturbance also play important roles. These variables influence ecological dynamics and are required to assess and manage snow leopard habitats.  The MaxEnt model has helped us to better grasp these issues, particularly the enormous impact of human activities on habitat suitability. The current study highlights the importance of altitude in determining snow leopard habitat preferences and distribution patterns in the reserve. Furthermore, the study underscores the significance of considering elevation in conservation planning and management strategies for snow leopards, particularly in mountainous regions. By combining complete environmental data with innovative modeling tools, this study not only improves local conservation efforts but also serves as a model for similar wildlife conservation initiatives around the world. By understanding the environmental factors driving snow leopard distribution, conservation efforts can be more efficiently directed to ensure the long-term survival of this endangered species. This study provides valuable insights for evidence-based conservation efforts to safeguard the habitats of snow
leopards amidst emerging anthropogenic pressure and environmental fluctuations.

URL: https://snowleopardnetwork.org/b/show.php?record=1751

One-Health-One-Welfare: A Holistic and Interdisciplinary Approach for Snow Leopard Conservation

 

The Snow Leopard Conservancy partners with local conservationists, range country and international organizations, and mountain communities living with snow leopards. SLC invests in solutions that save the lives of snow leopards and other predators from the consequence of human-wildlife conflict and build a long term foundation of coexistence, guardianship and self-reliance.  SLC’s initiatives empower Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge, evidence-based science, and promote healthy mountain ecosystems across the snow leopard’s range.

The One-Health-One-Welfare initiative facilitates a community-driven and holistic conservation approach that bridges educational, health, and environmental challenges within the remote mountain communities of Nepal. Using a One Health framework, that aims to conserve snow leopards and their habitat by improving local livelihoods, agricultural practices, expanding snow leopard conservation education, improving access to livestock veterinary care, reducing zoonotic disease transmission, and building local capacity to address these challenges.


 

 

New Article to the Bibliography

Please find details below of a new article added to our Bibliography:

Title: First photographic record of the snow leopard Panthera uncia in Kishtwar High Altitude National Park, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Author: Sanyal, O., Bashir, T., Rana, M., Chandan, P.

Abstract: The snow leopard Panthera uncia is categorized as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. It is the least well-known of the large felids because of its shy and elusive nature and the inaccessible terrain it inhabits across the mountains of Central and South Asia. We report the first photographic record of the snow leopard in Kishtwar High Altitude National Park, India. During our camera-trapping surveys, conducted using a grid-based design, we obtained eight photographs of snow leopards, the first at 3,280 m altitude on 19 September 2022 and subsequent photographs over 3,004-3,878 m altitude. We identified at least four different individuals, establishing the species’ occurrence in Kiyar, Nanth and Renai catchments, with a capture rate of 0.123 ± SE 0.072 captures/100 trap-nights. ghts. We also recorded the presence of snow leopard prey species, including the Siberian ibex Capra sibirica, Himalayan musk deer Moschus leucogaster, long-tailed marmot Marmota caudata and pika Oc
hotona sp., identifying the area as potential snow leopard habitat. Given the location of Kishtwar High Altitude National Park, this record is significant for the overall snow leopard conservation landscape in India. We recommend a comprehensive study across the Kishtwar landscape to assess the occupancy, abundance, demography and movement patterns of the snow leopard and its prey. In addition, interactions between the snow leopard and pastoral communities should be assessed to understand the challenges facing the conservation and management of this important high-altitude region.

URL: https://snowleopardnetwork.org/b/show.php?record=1750

SLN Summer Exchange 2024 – Conservation Leadership Program

 

The Snow Leopard Network is excited to bring you this exclusively tailored Summer Exchange 2024 – Conservation Leadership Program.

This program is being offered to our Network exclusively by members of the Three Mountain Group.

About the Program:

Strong Leaders – Effective Organizations – Transformative Impact

Conservation leaders, like any leader, are continually faced with opportunities and challenges that they need to meet. This leadership development training is designed to significantly increase the skills of leaders to manage in three critical areas:

  • individual leadership (use of self),
  • organizational leadership (leveraging teams),
  • and systems leadership (navigating large systems change).

Each skill area will have two sessions (120-minute-long virtual sessions) focused on building core capacities in that area of leadership excellence.  Dynamic, adaptive, and effective leadership is needed now more than ever, we look forward to working with you on your journey!

Expected outcomes:

  • Increased self-awareness and improved leadership skills for greater confidence, effectiveness, and enjoyment.
  • Enhanced understanding of a range of practical tools, techniques, and models to apply to organizational leadership and management to strengthen team and organizational performance, comradery, and commitment.
  • Stronger abilities to manage and influence change at larger levels for greater systemic impact through building robust partnerships and dependable collaborations; and
  • Establishment of an initial peer network or conservation leaders with the potential for future collaborations, initiatives, and exchanges.

 Program design: 

The program design is built on decades of experience in leadership development and conservation in over 75 countries around the world.  This wisdom will be combined with individual interests of participants to collaboratively build a custom program based on leaders needs and curiosities.  The program is designed to build on and improve participants already existing skills.  The focus will be on building participants individual leadership abilities and skills for managing themselves and influence and ability to lead their teams and organizations and wider networks of collaborators in the systems in which they operate.  The program will combine a blend of exposure to leading ideas and practices, personal reflection and exploration, peer learning and exchanges with colleagues, provision of practical tools and methods and group exercises and applications.

The overall design of the program is based on building and exercising leadership at three distinct and expanding scales:

  • Individual leadership: strengthening individual’s personal skills and characteristics as leaders, developing greater self-awareness of personal preferences and tendencies, managing relationships and personal wellness.
  • Organizational leadership: managing interactions with others, team dynamics and leading with and through mobilizing and supporting others.
  • Systems leadership: learning to reach and operate beyond one’s own team and organization to interact with multiple actors and organizations critical to success and scaling up of efforts. This requires leadership that can bring together a range of stakeholders to work together to achieve common goals.

 Feedback from previous Leadership Program participants:

“Everything I have learned, all the skills, all the tools, all the leadership qualities everything that we have done, I have been able to pass back to my team, so the training has not just been impactful for me but has made a difference to the whole team I am leading.”

 “The Conservation Leadership Program has greatly helped me in building on my leadership skills, including understanding my strengths and weaknesses, how to manage teams and understanding team dynamics.”

“The leadership sessions have shifted my view of leadership.  I’ve taken more leadership roles in my organization.  I’ve learned enough to give me confidence in guiding others, at the same time embracing my new leadership presence.  The trust and connections built with other participants has formed strong foundations for deep collaborations and partnerships going forward.”

“The Leadership program has kept my own energy level high and renewed my commitment to focus on various elements of organizational development.  I have gained numerous insights on how to lead better and implement simple and more effective management practices.”

 “The Conservation Leadership Program provided the right platform and trusting environment to develop meaningful collaboration and exchange of ideas.  I am very excited about the high-level conservations I have started with other participants, which could result in immense impacts for conservation.  This unique leadership program made this collaboration possible.”

 Core Faculty for Leadership Program:

 John Griffin and Steve Johnson, whose bios are listed below, will be the core faculty for the leadership program – together they have over 80 years of experience in the fields of conservation and leadership.  Based on the final design of the course, it may be that other guest faculty join the program as needed.

 John Griffin: Senior Consultant and CEO Three Mountain Group

John has been a trusted global expert for over 35 years and his work has taken him to over 70 countries around the world. He applies his unique multidisciplinary studies in economics, anthropology, ecology, psychology, organizational development, internal martial arts and mindfulness to some of the world’s most complicated issues.

For the past 25 years, John and his clients have worked on vital global issues in need of systemic change. For over a decade, in the 1990s, John focused the majority of his work on addressing complex conservation initiatives and served as an international wildlife and biodiversity specialist for the US government, United Nations, the World Bank, the World Wildlife Fund and numerous national governments and local communities having had an opportunity and honor to work in some of the most wild, naturally beautiful and remote locations on the planet.

Steve Johnson: Senior Consultant Three Mountain Group

Steve has been a leading international conservation specialist.  Through his 45 years of experience in the wilds of Africa, he uses his passion and expertise to support exceptional people of conscience and empathy to find true purpose in their lives – to make a difference in our world – leaving a meaningful legacy.   He has designed and led a program called the League of Legends to promote deep and transformative shifts in leaders across various disciplines and sectors.  As an executive management coach, professional speaker, and mentor he continues to influence others to live their legacies one day at a time.

Steve has been Chief of Party (COP) – leader of several significant nature conservation programs.  He led USAID’s VukaNow Program which collaborated with various USAID programs in Southern Africa to combat wildlife crime across the region, with a focus on protecting elephant, rhino, wild lion and pangolin populations.  He was Chief of Party (Director) of the Southern Africa Regional Environment Program a USAID funded program supporting the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission assisting in areas of biodiversity management, water resources management, climate change, rural and community development across the whole Okavango River Basin.  Over decades of experience, he has been a leader and key conservation advisor for the European Union, World Bank, United Nations, IUCN as well as dozens of local and national government agencies.

Components of Modules in the 6 Sessions:

The 6 sessions will be comprised of, but not limited to the following aspects of leadership:

Session 1 – Individual Leadership

  • Strengthening individual’s personal skills and characteristics as leaders.Developing self-awareness of personal preferences and tendencies – maximizes strengths.
  • Basics on Change and resistance to change.
  • Personal Wellness – mindfulness – engaged presence.
    • Awakened Mind – neuroscience and mindfulness
    • Managing one’s own health and wellness (motivation, avoiding burnout)
      • Flow Model
      • Use of Self

 Session 2 – Individual Leadership

  • Managing relationships – developing the ability to relate to and interact with other people.
  • Manges one’s own time.
    • Pie Chart and Basic Time Effectiveness
    • Workout process
  • Emotional Intelligence – managing and understanding an intimate (relational) and strategic (task oriented) balance.
  • Leadership Legacy – defining your own unique path to leadership excellence.

Organizational Leadership: (Pertains to the leadership of organizations and their management as a group of people working towards common aims).

Session 3 – Organizational Leadership –

  • Building, managing and retaining teams of people.
    • Team-building basics
  • Managing for Results.

Session 4 – Organizational Leadership –

  • Organizational Strategy – team organizational direction.
  • Communications – as it relates to organizational leadership – “managing the ship”.
  • Resource Mobilization – fundraising – business development.

Systems Leadership:

(Leadership that reaches/extends beyond one’s own organization to (the scale of multiple organizations (private, public, non-profit) whose interactions are critical to achieving large-scale, systemic change – and can impact your own organizational goals). For example, changing or influencing government policies or institutions, or achieving change at the landscape scale, generally requires collaboration and collective action beyond the capacity of any single organization.  It requires leaders being able to understand and get many different actors, with different ideas, interests, power, and personalities, to work together to achieve shared goals.  Doing this is difficult, but it is fundamental to the kind of leadership required to achieve meaningful – sustainable and lasting change.)

Session 5- Systems Leadership

  • Systems Change – Thinking and Action
    • Balcony – Dance Floor – seeing the whole of a system.
    • Blind Men and the Elephant.
    • Iceberg of Change.
  • Change and Resistance to change – deeper learnings and working through change and resistance models applied to specific issues.
  • Deeper Aspects of Systems Change.

Session 6 – Systems Leadership

  • Multi-stakeholder engagement – Leadership skills to bring together a range of stakeholders to achieve common goals (difficult but essential to achieve the desired environmental protection/conservation goals).
  • Trust – Understanding of various levels of trust and how to build and maintain enhanced working relationships with multiple collaborating partners. (Trust essentially a key component at all levels of leadership – individual, organizational and systems).
  • Constellation work on System Issues in areas of action for leadership programs – role play/real play of actual issues with multi-stakeholders and how to work through them.

Dates and Time: 

The sessions will be held virtually by zoom on Tuesdays for 6 consecutive weeks (120 mins for each session): NOTE: For maintaining the integrity and strength of the learning community it is critical that participants make a commitment to attend all 6 sessions of the program. This is usually offered as a paid program, but is brought to SLN as an unpaid course for the benefit of our members.

  • June 4th – (Tuesday) Session 1(16:30 PM Bishkek time)
  • June 11th – Session 2 (16:30 PM Bishkek time)
  • June 18th – Session 3 (16:30 PM Bishkek time)
  • June 25th – Session 4 (16:30 PM Bishkek time)
  • July 2nd – Session 5 (16:30 PM Bishkek time)
  • July 9th – Session 6 (16:30 PM Bishkek time)

Location

ZOOM, to join this talk, REGISTER HERE

Please note

    • If you have never used Zoom before, we recommend that you try the link 10 minutes before the start of the lecture.
    • Please feel free to write questions in the comment area and there will be time for questions/discussion at the end of the talk.
    • Please note that the session will be recorded and later featured on the SLN website. If you have concerns about this please let us know before the session

 

SLN Webinar: One-Health-One-Welfare: A Holistic and Interdisciplinary Approach for Snow Leopard Conservation

 

SLN invites you to our fourth webinar of 2024 with the team from Snow Leopard Conservancy.

                                       (2023 OHOW Paraveterinarian training)

About the Talk:

The Snow Leopard Conservancy partners with local conservationists, range country and international organizations, and mountain communities living with snow leopards. SLC invests in solutions that save the lives of snow leopards and other predators from the consequence of human-wildlife conflict and build a long term foundation of coexistence, guardianship and self-reliance.  SLC’s initiatives empower Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge, evidence-based science, and promote healthy mountain ecosystems across the snow leopard’s range.

(2023 OHOW Chame Animal Health Clinic)

The One-Health-One-Welfare initiative facilitates a community-driven and holistic conservation approach that bridges educational, health, and environmental challenges within the remote mountain communities of Nepal. Using a One Health framework, that aims to conserve snow leopards and their habitat by improving local livelihoods, agricultural practices, expanding snow leopard conservation education, improving access to livestock veterinary care, reducing zoonotic disease transmission, and building local capacity to address these challenges.

Snow leopard
Panthera uncia
Mother grooming three-month-old cub(s)
San Francisco Zoo, California
*Captive – (pc -Suzi Eszterhas)

Nepal Snow Leopard Scout program

 

 

 

About our Speaker:

Ashleigh Lutz-Nelson is the Executive Director of the Snow Leopard Conservancy (SLC).  Ashleigh has a B.S. in Zoology (Pre-Veterinary) from the University of Florida and a MSc from Royal Veterinary College and Zoological Society of London in Wild Animal Biology.  Prior to SLC, Ashleigh worked as a Zoologist in AZA-Accredited Zoos in Florida and California for 20 years, specializing with wild carnivores, particularly felids. She has also worked closely with Ruaha Carnivore Project, Malayan Conservation Alliance for Tigers, Pallas’s Cat International Conservation Alliance, and the Felid Taxon Advisory Group, serving as a ‘Wildlife Health Bridge’, between zoos & field conservation organizations to build collaboration and collective impact. She is the co-founder and co-director of SLC’s One-Health-One-Welfare initiative to improve animal-human health and the protection of snow leopards and other wildlife in Nepal. Using her interdisciplinary zoological and conservation background in animal behavior, welfare, veterinary medicine and creative problem solving, she aims to further compassionate human-wildlife coexistence in a rapidly changing world. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About our Facilitator:

 

Koustubh Sharma is the International Coordinator of the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP) and the Director of Science and Conservation at the Snow Leopard Trust. With nearly 20 years of experience in ecological research, wildlife conservation and training, he helps build collaborations and coordinate alliances and at multiple levels for snow leopard research and conservation.

 

 

(2022 OHOW workshops in Phu Valley Annapurna Nepal)

Date/Time

Thursday, 16th May at 09:00am Bishkek time

Location

ZOOM, to join this talk, REGISTER HERE

Please note

  • If you have never used Zoom before, we recommend that you try the link 10 minutes before the start of the lecture.
  • Please feel free to write questions in the comment area and there will be time for questions/discussion at the end of the talk.
  • Please note that the session will be recorded and later featured on the SLN website. If you have concerns about this please let us know before the session

New Article to the Bibliography

 

Please find details below of a new article added to our Bibliography:

Title: Genetic Variation in the Pallas’s Cat (Otocolobus manul) in Zoo-Managed and Wild Populations

Author: Robinson, J. J., Crichlow, A. D., Hacker, C. E., Munkhtsog, B., Munkhtsog, B., Zhang, Y., Swanson, W. F., Lyons, L. A., Janecka, J. E.

Abstract: The Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul) is one of the most understudied taxa in the Felidae family. The species is currently assessed as being of “Least Concern” in the IUCN Red List, but this assessment is based on incomplete data. Additional ecological and genetic information is necessary for the long-term in situ and ex situ conservation of this species. We identified 29 microsatellite loci with sufficient diversity to enable studies into the individual identification, population structure, and phylogeography of Pallas’s cats. These microsatellites were genotyped on six wild Pallas’s cats from the Tibet Autonomous Region and Mongolia and ten cats from a United States zoo-managed population that originated in Russia and Mongolia. Additionally, we examined diversity in a 91 bp segment of the mitochondrial 12S ribosomal RNA (MT-RNR1) locus and a hypoxia-related gene, endothelial PAS domain protein 1 (EPAS1). Based on the microsatellite and MT-RNR1 loci, we established that the Pallas’s cat displays moderate genetic diversity. Intriguingly, we found that the Pallas’s cats had one unique nonsynonymous substitution in EPAS1 not present in snow leopards (Panthera uncia) or domestic cats (Felis catus). The analysis of the zoo-managed population indicated reduced genetic diversity compared to wild individuals. The genetic information from this study is a valuable resource for future research into and the conservation of the Pallas’s cat.

URL: https://snowleopardnetwork.org/b/show.php?record=1749

New Article to the Bibliography

Please find details below of a new article added to our Bibliography:

Title: Predicting and reducing potential parasite infection between migratory livestock and resident Asiatic ibex of Pin valley, India

Author: Khanyari, M., Oyanedel, R., Khara, A., Sharma, M., Milner-Gulland, E. J., Suryawanshi, K. R., Vineer, H. R., Morgan, E. R.

Abstract: Disease cross-transmission between wild and domestic ungulates can negatively impact livelihoods and wildlife conservation. In Pin valley, migratory sheep and goats share pastures seasonally with the resident Asiatic ibex (Capra sibirica), leading to potential disease cross-transmission. Focussing on gastro-intestinal nematodes (GINs) as determinants of health in ungulates, we hypothesized that infection on pastures would increase over summer from contamination by migrating livestock. Consequently, interventions in livestock that are well-timed should reduce infection pressure for ibex. Using a parasite life-cycle model, that predicts infective larval availability, we investigated GIN transmission dynamics and evaluated potential interventions. Migratory livestock were predicted to contribute most infective larvae onto shared pastures due to higher density and parasite levels, driving infections in both livestock and ibex. The model predicted a c.30-day anti- parasitic i
ntervention towards the end of the livestock’s time in Pin would be most effective at reducing GINs in both hosts. Albeit with the caveats of not being able to provide evidence of interspecific parasite trans- mission due to the inability to identify parasite species, this case demonstrates the usefulness of our predictive model for investigating parasite transmission in landscapes where domestic and wild ungulates share pastures. Additionally, it suggests management options for further investigation.

URL:  https://snowleopardnetwork.org/b/show.php?record=1748

 

New Article to the Bibliography

Please find details below of a new article added to our Bibliography:

Title: Can livestock grazing dampen density-dependent fluctuations in wild herbivore populations?

Author: Sharma, M., Khanyari, M., Khara, A., Bijoor, A., Mishra, C., Suryawanshi, K. R.

Abstract: 1. Conservation policy for the high mountains of Asia increasingly recognises the need to encompass large multi-use landscapes beyond the protected area network. Due to limited long-term research in this region, our understanding of even fundamental processes, such as factors regulating large mammal populations is poor.
2. Understanding the factors that regulate animal populations, especially those generating cyclicity, is a long-standing problem in ecology. Long-term research across multiple taxa (mainly from Europe and North America) has focussed on the relative roles of food and predation in generating cyclicity in population dynamics. It remains unclear how trophic interactions that are influenced by anthropogenic stressors can affect population dynamics in human-modified landscapes.
3. We present a 10-year study to compare the effects of livestock grazing on density-dependent dynamics in two populations of bharal, Pseudois nayaur, in the Himalayas. We combine this with a mechanistic understanding of whether density dependence in these two sites acts predominantly by affecting adult survival or recruitment. We compared and quantified density dependence in the bharal population by fitting Bayesian Gompertz state-space models.
4. We found evidence for negative density dependence which indicates possible cyclic dynamics in the bharal population of the site (Tabo) with low livestock density. The population dynamics of this site were driven by recruited offspring—with a 2-year density-dependent lag effect—rather than adult survival. In the site with high livestock density (Kibber), this density dependence was not detected. We postulate the potential role of excessive grazing by livestock in affecting offspring recruitment, thereby affecting the bharal population in Kibber.
5. Synthesis and applications: Our results suggest that conservation action to facilitate wild herbivore population recovery, such as the development of protected areas and village reserves, needs to account for density-dependent regulation. Sites with trophy hunting require continuous monitoring to understand the effects of density dependence so that appropriate hunting quotas can be formulated.

URL: https://snowleopardnetwork.org/b/show.php?record=1747

New Article to the Bibliography

Please find details below of a new article added to our Bibliography:

Title: A framework for understanding the contributions of local residents to protected area law enforcement

Author: Sharkey, W., Milner-Gulland, E. J., Sinovas, P., Keane, A.

Abstract: Terrestrial and marine protected areas have long been championed as an approach to biodiversity conservation. For protected areas to be effective, equitable and inclusive, the involvement of local residents in their management and governance is considered important. Globally, there are many approaches to involving local residents in protected area law enforcement. However, opportunities for comparing different approaches have been limited by the lack of a clear common framework for analysis. To support a more holistic understanding, we present a framework for analysing the contributions of local residents to protected area law enforcement. Informed by a review of the literature and discussions with conservation practitioners, the framework comprises five key dimensions: (1) the different points in the enforcement system at which local residents are involved, (2) the nature of local participation in decision-making, (3) the type of external support provided to local resid
ents, (4) the different motivating forces for participation, and (5) the extent to which local participation is formalized. We apply the framework to three real-world case studies to demonstrate its use in analysing and comparing the characteristics of different approaches. We suggest this framework could be used to examine variation in local participation within the enforcement system, inform evaluation and frame constructive discussions between relevant stakeholders. With the global coverage of protected areas likely to increase, the framework provides a foundation for better understanding the contributions of local residents to protected area law enforcement.

URL: https://snowleopardnetwork.org/b/show.php?record=1746

 

Tech for wildlife: The role AI and technology can play in nature conservation

In this webinar hosted by the Snow Leopard Network, Peter van Lunteren’s presentation will explore the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in nature conservation, specifically emphasizing its potential applications in advancing Snow Leopard conservation effortsPeter will examine the current state of AI capabilities and discuss how conservationists can leverage automation and computer vision to enhance efficiency in their work. The focus will be on using AI for data analysis, real-time audio, and image processing in remote areas. Technologies such as camera traps, GPS collar tracking, and bioacoustic monitoring will be discussed. By addressing the current possibilities and challenges, Peter aims to shed light on how AI can be a powerful ally in the ongoing efforts to protect and preserve Snow Leopards and their habitats.