Author: Rakhee Karumbaya

Deadline Reminder – Sabin Snow Leopard Grants Program

 

Hello All,

Just a reminder that with the continued generous support of the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation, Zoo New England will be accepting pre-proposals for the Sabin Snow Leopard Grants Program through August 15, 2023.

The Sabin Snow Leopard Grants Program supports research, threat mitigation, and building conservation capacity within the snow leopard conservation community.

Zoo New England is proud to continue providing this important support to snow leopard conservation so that this magnificent big cat can continue to survive and thrive in its high mountain home.

Please follow the link below for details. 

https://www.zoonewengland.org/protect/around-the-globe/sabin-snow-leopard-grants-program/

Best regards, 

Peter Zahler

Director of Field Conservation

Zoo New England

 

 

New Article to the Bibliography

 

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

Title: Neutral and adaptive genetic variation in Indian snow leopards, Panthera uncia

Author: Golla, T. R., Tensen, L., Vipin, Kumar, K., Kumar, S., Gaur, A.

Abstract: In this study, we reveal patterns of genetic variation in snow leopards (Panthera uncia) by combining neutral (mtDNA, microsatellites) and adaptive (MHC II-DRB) genes. We collected 56 faecal samples from three locations in India. We observed moderate levels of microsatellite diversity (N = 30; A = 5.6; HO = 0.559). Nine unique MHC II-DRB sequences were identified in four snow leopard samples, of which 8 were novel. We found low levels of polymorphism in MHC class II-DRB exon, which was higher in captive (VA = 9.4%) compared to wild individuals (VA = 7.8%), likely as a result of a population bottleneck.

URL: https://snowleopardnetwork.org/b/show.php?record=1722

New Article to the Bibliography

 

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

Title: Effects of snow leopards (Panthera uncia) on olfactory communication of Pallas’s cats (Otocolobus manul) in the Altai Mountains, Mongolia 

Author: Allen, M. L., Rovero, F., Oberosler, V., Augugliaro, C., Krofel, M. 
Abstract: Olfactory communication is important for many solitary carnivores to delineate territories and communicate with potential mates and competitors. Pallas’s cats (Otocolobus manul) are small felids with little published research on their ecology and behaviour, including if they avoid or change behaviours due to dominant carnivores. We studied their olfactory communication and visitation at scent-marking sites using camera traps in two study areas in Mongolia. We documented four types of olfactory communication behaviours, and olfaction (sniffing) was the most frequent. Pallas’s cats used olfactory communication most frequently at sites that were not visited by snow leopards (Panthera uncia) and when they used communal scent-marking sites, they were more likely to use olfactory communication when a longer time had elapsed since the last visit by a snow leopard. This suggests that Pallas’s cats may reduce advertising their presence in response to occurrence of snow leop 
ards, possibly to limit predation risk. 

URL:  

https://snowleopardnetwork.org/b/show.php?record=1721


 

Sabin Snow Leopard Grants Program Announcement

Hello All,

I am very happy to announce that with the continued generous support of the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation, Zoo New England will be accepting pre-proposals for the Sabin Snow Leopard Grants Program. This call will be open from July 1 through August 15, 2023.

The Sabin Snow Leopard Grants Program supports research, threat mitigation, and building conservation capacity within the snow leopard conservation community.

 Zoo New England is proud to continue providing this important support to snow leopard conservation so that this magnificent big cat can continue to survive and thrive in its high mountain home.

 Please follow the link below for details. 

 https://www.zoonewengland.org/protect/around-the-globe/sabin-snow-leopard-grants-program/Untitled

 Best regards, 

 Peter Zahler

Director of Field Conservation

Zoo New England

 

SLN Summer Exchange 2023; more details!

Summer Exchange 2023 Schedule

We are thrilled to showcase a diverse range of topics and resource persons from seven different organizations as part of our upcoming Summer Exchange. Each week, we will delve into various aspects of conservation and research, offering valuable insights and opportunities for knowledge sharing. Join us as we explore a wide array of tools, techniques, and approaches that play a crucial role in wildlife conservation and habitat protection.

To participate, please register through the following link, and we look forward to welcoming you to the event!

 

Register Today

 

Please note that all sessions take place at 14:00 pm, Bishkek time.

 

Tuesday, 13th June

SMART Tools

The use of technology in conservation efforts has revolutionized data collection and analysis. The Wildlife Conservation Society will present the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART), a technology designed to monitor and protect wildlife in protected areas. Discover how SMART is applied in surveys for endangered species, such as snow leopard prey species. Learn about data collection methods, management, and analysis using the SMART survey tool.

Samantha Strindberg

is a Conservation Scientist and Wildlife Statistician at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). She specializes in wildlife survey techniques, statistical analysis, and conservation management. With a Ph.D. in Statistics focused on Wildlife Population Assessment, Samantha has extensive experience in the field.

 

Antony Lynam

is an ecologist and conservation scientist at WCS. With over 30 years of experience in wildlife conservation and management, he has pioneered the use of technology for conservation purposes. Antony has expertise in camera trapping, GPS navigation, and law enforcement monitoring databases.

 

 

Tuesday, 20th June

Intro to QGIS

Join our online workshop, Introduction to QGIS, and discover key tools for everyday data visualization, spatial analysis, and mapping. This concise introductory session focuses on practical skills using QGIS, a powerful geographic information system widely used in conservation and research. Engage in interactive activities and discussions to gain a solid understanding of essential QGIS tools and their applications in real-world projects.

Justine S Alexander

Justine Shanti Alexander is a Senior Conservation Scientist at the Snow Leopard Trust and the Executive Director of the Snow Leopard Network. As a snow leopard conservationist, she frequently employs QGIS in her everyday work and has conducted training sessions on the software for field teams, including protected area staff, who have found the acquired skills highly useful for their conservation efforts.

Tuesday, 27th June

AI Camera Trap Management

Join us for an online workshop where the ShanShui Conservation team will introduce their newly developed software designed to streamline camera trap image processing. This software focuses on efficiently removing images that do not capture any animals and simplifying the creation of Excel sheets with the corresponding time and date information. While the workshop will not cover artificial intelligence for species or individual identification, it will provide valuable insights into the team’s ongoing efforts to develop software tools that will enhance camera trap data analysis in the future.

Wei Chunyue

started her journey in wildlife conservation from camera trap data processing and analysis working with Shan Shui Conservation Center. She then participated in snow leopard monitoring and conservation work on the Tibetan Plateau. Chunyue takes strong interests in applying technology tools to facilitate camera trap data management. Chunyue holds a BSc. in Environmental Engineering from Tsinghua University and a MSc. in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University.

Dong Zhengyi

has 6 years of experience in wildlife conservation on the Tibetan Plateau. He participated in many snow leopard surveys in the southeastern part of the Plateau. He is now dedicated to enhancing wildlife monitoring with cutting-edge technology and promoting the integration of biodiversity data across various fields. Zhengyi holds a BSc. in Biology Science from Peking University and a MSc. in Conservation Biology from Lund University.

Thursday, 06th July

Intro to Occupancy and SCR methods

Explore the PAWS toolbox, focusing on occupancy models and spatial capture-recapture (SCR) methods. Understand survey design, data collection, management, and analysis for assessing snow leopard distribution and abundance. Gain insights into interpreting and communicating results effectively.

Ian Durbach

is an ecological statistician with expertise in wildlife surveys. He has supported snow leopard camera trap surveys and provided design and analysis assistance across the PAWS network.

 

 

 

Koustubh Sharma

is an experienced wildlife conservationist and the International Coordinator of the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program. With more than 20 years of experience, he coordinates snow leopard research and conservation efforts.

 

 

 

Thursday, 13th July

Conservation and People: Champion Networks

Learn about community-led conservation and the importance of building working relationships and trust with local communities. Deepshikha Sharma from the Nature Conservation Foundation – SLT India program will share experiences, challenges, and lessons learned in working with community champions in the trans-Himalayan mountains of India.

Deepshikha Sharma

Deepshikha Sharma is actively involved in community-led conservation in snow leopard habitats in Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh. She focuses on reducing human-wildlife conflict and raising awareness among local communities.

Thursday, 20th July

Data collection and visualization

This session explores the best practices for designing questionnaires and utilizing the data collection tool KoBoToolbox. Discover how to create well-structured surveys and efficiently collect data. Additionally, explore Looker, a powerful data analytics platform, and learn how to create interactive dashboards.

Altynai Adabaeva

is a freelancer specializing in environmental data analytics. She has extensive experience in conducting surveys and using data analysis for research and conservation projects.

Thursday, 27th July

Nature Education

Nature education plays a vital role in conservation efforts. This workshop highlights the theories and practices from education, ecology, and psychology that can be applied to design effective nature education projects. Engage in interactive discussions and activities to learn how to create content and resources that foster a deep connection with nature.

Vena Kapoor

founder of Nature Classrooms, collaborates with primary school teachers and educators, offering training workshops and co-developing nature learning activities. With expertise in conservation leadership and ecology, Vena holds an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a Masters in Ecology from the University of Pondicherry.

 

Thank you to all the organizations and Resource Persons supporting the Summer Exchange!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Article to the Bibliography

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

Title: Landscape resistance to gene flow in a snow leopard population from Qilianshan National Park, Gansu, China

Author: Atzeni, L., Wang, J., Riordan, P., Shi, K., Cushman, S. A.

Abstract: Context: The accurate estimation of landscape resistance to movement is important for ecological understanding and conservation applications. Rigorous estimation of resistance requires validation and optimization. One approach uses genetic data for the optimization or validation of resistance models. Objectives We used a genetic dataset of snow leopards from China to evaluate how landscape genetics resistance models varied across genetic distances and spatial scales of analysis. We evaluated whether landscape genetics models were superior to models of resistance derived from habitat suitability or isolation-by-distance.
Methods: We regressed genetically optimized, habitat-based, and isolation-by-distance hypotheses against genetic distances using mixed effect models. We explored all subset combinations of genetically optimized variables to find the most supported resistance scenario for each genetic distance.
Results: Genetically optimized models always out-performed habitat-based and isolation-by-distance hypotheses. The choice of genetic distances influenced the apparent influence of variables, their spatial scales and their functional response shapes, producing divergent resistance scenarios. Gene flow in snow leopards was largely facilitated by areas of intermediate ruggedness at intermediate elevations corresponding to small-to-large valleys within and between the mountain ranges.
Conclusions: This study highlights that landscape genetics models provide superior estimation of functional dispersal than habitat surrogates and suggests that optimization of genetic distance should be included as an optimization routine in landscape genetics, along with variables, scales, effect size and functional response shape. Furthermore, our study provides new insights on the ecological conditions that promote gene flow in snow leopards, which expands ecological knowledge, and we hope will improve conservation planning.

URL: https://snowleopardnetwork.org/b/show.php?record=1720

Ensuring a future for Kenya’s lions & other large carnivores through community-led conservation

 

Welcome to our next SLN webinar where we’re excited to introduce you to Ewaso Lions, a Kenya-based conservation organization working to promote coexistence between people and wildlife, specifically large carnivores such as lions. In an upcoming presentation, Ewaso Lions’ Founder & Executive Director, Shivani Bhalla, and Director of Impact and Operations, Toby Otieno, will share how their various community programs with pastoralist communities seek to build local agency and decision-making in carnivore conservation and promote human-carnivore coexistence. Ewaso Lions firmly believes that community-led conservation efforts are key to the success of lion conservation.

New Article to the Bibliography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Title: Prediction of potential habitat suitability of snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur) and niche overlap in the parts of western Himalayan region

Author: Islam, M., Sahana, M., Areendran, G., Jamir, C., Raj, K., Sajjad, H.

Abstract: The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur) are the inhabitants of remote areas at higher altitudes with extreme geographic and climatic conditions. The habitats of these least-studied species are crucial for sustaining the Himalayan ecosystem. We employed the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) species distribution model to predict the potential habitat suitability of snow leopards and blue sheep and extracted common overlapped niches. For this, we utilised presence location, bio-climatic and environmental variables, and correlation analysis was applied to reduce the negative impact of multicollinearity. A total of 134 presence locations of snow leopards and 64 for blue sheep were selected from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The annual mean temperature (Bio1) was found to be the most useful and highly influential factor to predict the potential habitat suitability of snow leopards. Annual mean temperature, annual precipitation and isoth
ermality were the major influencing factors for blue sheep habitat suitability. Highly influential bio-climatic, topographic and environmental variables were integrated to construct the model for predicting habitat suitability. The area under the curve (AUC) values for snow leopard (0.87) and blue sheep (0.82) showed that the models are under good representation. Of the total area investigated, 47% was suitable for the blue sheep and 38% for the snow leopards. Spatial habitat assessment revealed that nearly 11% area from the predicted suitable habitat class of both species was spatially matched (overlapped), 48.6% area was unsuitable under niche overlap and 40.5% area was spatially mismatched niche. The presence of snow leopards and blue sheep in some highly suitable areas was not observed, yet such areas have the potential to sustain these elusive species. The other geographical regions interested in exploring habitat suitability may find the methodological framework adopted in thi
s study useful for formulating an effective conservation policy and management strategy.

URL: https://snowleopardnetwork.org/b/show.php?record=1719

SLN Webinar: Ensuring a future for Kenya’s lions & other large carnivores through community-led conservation

Welcome to our next SLN webinar where we’re excited to introduce you to Ewaso Lions, a Kenya-based conservation organization working to promote coexistence between people and wildlife, specifically large carnivores such as lions. In an upcoming presentation, Ewaso Lions’ Founder & Executive Director, Shivani Bhalla, and Director of Impact and Operations, Toby Otieno, will share how their various community programs with pastoralist communities seek to build local agency and decision-making in carnivore conservation and promote human-carnivore coexistence. Ewaso Lions firmly believes that community-led conservation efforts are key to the success of lion conservation.

Discover innovative community-led programs and gain valuable insights for successful conservation efforts, applicable not only to lions but also to snow leopards and other endangered species. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn and work together towards our shared conservation goals.

About the talk

Ewaso Lions conserves Kenya’s lions and other large carnivores by promoting coexistence between people and wildlife. We firmly believe that the success of lion conservation hinges on the involvement of the local people who live alongside lions. In this talk, Shivani Bhalla, Founder & Executive Director, Ewaso Lions and Toby Otieno, Director of Impact and Operations, Ewaso Lions, will discuss the decline in the lion population across Africa before focusing on the ways in which Ewaso Lions’ various community programmes seek to promote human-carnivore coexistence and build local capacity for carnivore conservation.  Learn how, as a result of community-led conservation, lions have started to make a comeback in the community areas where Ewaso Lions operates.

About our Guests

Shivani Bhalla. Born and raised in Kenya, Shivani believes the key to lion conservation is working in partnership with local communities. She founded Ewaso Lions in 2007 to promote coexistence between carnivores and people. Shivani is a member of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group, African Lion Working Group, Kenya’s Large Carnivore Taskforce and a founding member of the Pride Lion Conservation Alliance. Shivani has a BSc. in Environmental Science from Lancaster University, received her MSc. in Wildlife Biology and Conservation from Edinburgh Napier University and was awarded her DPhil in Zoology from Oxford University in 2017.Previously, she has worked for the Kenya Wildlife Service and Save The Elephants. Shivani moved to Samburu in 2002 and lives in the Ewaso Lions Camp in Westgate Conservancy with her two dogs Kura and Nanyori.

 

Toby Otieno has vast research and field experience throughout Kenya whilst working with the National Museums of Kenya’s mammalogy department and the Mpala Research Centre in Laikipia. Toby has applied his skills to implement research design, conduct field activities, write research proposals, and author publications in peer reviewed journals. As Ewaso Lions Director of Impact and Operations, Toby takes the lead role in all monitoring activities and research programme management in order to provide data to support our mission. Toby holds a BSc. in Wildlife Management and Conservation from University of Nairobi, and a MSc. in Wildlife Management from Karatina University.

 

Our Facilitator

 

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

Date/Time

Friday, May 5th, at 14:00pm 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.

 

 

Using ranger-based monitoring data for predicting poaching pressure

The webinar will focus on the pressing issue of illegal hunting and its impact on large herbivores, specifically mountain ungulates. Despite increased conservation efforts, many species are still at risk of extinction, and more effective interventions are needed. Our speaker, Arash Ghoddousi, will share his research on analysing ranger-based monitoring data to inform adaptive management. He will present a case study from Golestan National Park, where they identified the main determinants of illegal hunting, such as accessibility, law enforcement, and prey availability. Our discussant, Munib Khanyari, will also share his insights on human-nature relationships in the Trans-Himalayan region of India.