Author: sln_g5rd8x

Notorius Tiger & Leopard Trader Convicted

Katni, 11 November 2008

The Judicial Magistrate in Katni, Madhya Pradesh, Mr Ajay Singh, today convicted notorious tiger and leopard trader Shabbir Hasan Qureshi of Allahabad to three years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 10,000 on two separate counts.

Qureshi and a second accused, Ashok Pardhi, were both absconders in a 2004 case where seven leopard skins were seized near Shadhol in Madhya Pradesh. After Qureshi s arrest in December 2007 in Allahabad with three tiger skins and three tiger skeletons, his custody was procured by the Katni Forest Department. His trial began on the 2004 case in January this year.

The case was fought by WPSI Advocate Manjula Srivastava on behalf of the Katni Forest Department, with the active assistance of WPSI personnel. Within ten months the case was concluded and the two accused, Qureshi and Pardhi, were convicted on two separate counts under Sections 49b and 52 and of The Wild Life (Protection) Act for Trade and Attempts and Abetments . Qureshi and Pardhi received a sentence of three years rigorous imprisonment on both counts (making a total of six years each), and a fine of Rs. 10,000 on each count.

We are absolutely delighted that this notorious big cat trader has been convicted. Qureshi is believed to have traded in about 600 dead tigers, and the outcome of the case in Katni is a great victory for India s wildlife , said Nitin Desai, WPSI s Director in Central India on hearing the news in Katni.

Shabbir Hasan Qureshi, who is a resident of Allahabad, UP, is an accused in a number of other wildlife cases including the major seizure in Khaga, UP, in January 2000, of four tiger skins, 70 leopard skins and a huge haul of other wildlife products. He is also the prime accused in the December 2007 seizure of three tiger skins and three tiger skeletons in Allahabad. Both these cases have been handed over to the CBI.
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Belinda Wright, Executive Director
WILDLIFE PROTECTION SOCIETY OF INDIA (WPSI)
S-25, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India
Mob: +9198 111 90690
Email: belinda@wpsi-india.org
Website: www.wpsi-india.org
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The Power of Genetics in Snow Leopard Conservation

The October 2008 issue of Animal Conservation features the first results of the genetic work conducted by Jan Janecka, Texas A&M University, in partnership with the Snow Leopard Conservancy and others.

Animal Conservation: Vol 11(5):pages 401-411. Population monitoring of snow leopards using noninvasive collection of scat samples: a pilot study. 2008. J. E. Janečka, R. Jackson, Z. Yuquang, L. Diqiang, B. Munkhtsog, V. Buckley-Beason, W. J. Murphy

An abstract is available at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121356219/abstract

This pioneering genetic study was also featured in the October 15 issue of New Scientist Online

The full story, paraphrased below, is available at:
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg20026782.600-snow-leopard-genes-could-help-estimate-populations.html
The article describes how snow leopard numbers can be read in their scat. A genetic test specific to endangered snow leopards can reveal vital information on their numbers and diversity from a sample of feces. What is more, a pilot study has found that some feces thought to come from snow leopards were actually from red foxes or lynx – a disturbing sign that previous estimates of snow leopard numbers may be far too high.
Genetic testing of feces is more precise than field observations, but efforts to date have been limited because the costs were high. But now, these genetic approaches have become reasonably priced, allowing for large-scale studies. In addition, standard molecular primers based on domestic cats were not reliable when testing the degraded DNA in snow leopard feces. This led co-author Jan Janecka of Texas A&M University to develop tests specific for snow leopard DNA in scat.

Trials using the new approach in China, India and Mongolia show it is much more reliable and can effectively identify individual snow leopards.

That information is crucial for conservation, says co-author Rodney Jackson, director of the Snow Leopard Conservancy of Sonoma, California, which has plans for expanding the genetic test-based survey program.

Animal Conservation is a publication of the Zoological Society of London. The journal provides a forum for rapid and timely publication of novel scientific studies of past, present and future factors influencing the conservation of animal species and their habitats. The focus is on rigorous studies of an empirical or theoretical nature, relating to species and population biology. A central theme is to publish important new ideas and findings from evolutionary biology and ecology that contribute towards the scientific basis of conservation biology.

For over fifty years New Scientist, which now reaches nearly 1 million worldwide readers, has been informing the public of the latest science and technology news from around the world.

eBay announces ivory ban in wake of IFAW report

(San Francisco, CA – 20 October 2008) – The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW – www.ifaw.org) applauds eBay’s decision to institute a global ban on the sale of elephant ivory products by 1 January 2009 and calls on all other internet traders to follow their example.

eBay’s decision was announced just hours before the release of IFAW’s latest investigative report showing Internet trade in wildlife poses a significant and immediate threat to the survival of elephants and many other endangered species.

The report, which followed a six-week investigation that tracked more than 7,000 wildlife product listings on 183 Web sites in 11 countries, singled out eBay as the largest contributor to the problem, responsible for almost two-thirds of the online trade in wildlife products worldwide

IFAW’s report, Killing with Keystrokes: An Investigation of the Illegal Wildlife Trade on the World Wide Web, will be released tomorrow and shows that more than 70% of all endangered species’ products listed for sale on the Internet occur in the United States. The amount of trade tracked in the U.S. was nearly 10 times the trade tracked in the next two leading countries, the United Kingdom and China.

Elephant ivory dominated the investigation, comprising 73% of all product listings tracked. Exotic birds were second, accounting for nearly 20% of the listings tracked, but primates, big cats and other animals are also falling victim to the e-trade in live animals and wildlife products, according to the report.

“IFAW congratulates eBay on this very important step to protect elephants. With these findings and eBay’s leadership, there is no doubt left that all Internet dealers need to take responsibility for their impact on endangered species by enacting and enforcing a ban on all online wildlife trade. eBay has set the standard for protecting elephants, now governments and other online dealers need to follow their example,” said Barbara Cartwright, IFAW Campaigns Manager.

Over 4,000 elephant ivory listings were uncovered during the investigation, with most of the sales taking place on eBay’s U.S. site. In one instance, a user purchased a pair of elephant tusks off eBay for more than $21,000.

“With a few limited exceptions, selling ivory has been illegal since 1989,” said Jeff Flocken, Director of IFAW’s Washington D.C. office. “However, Web sites are still teeming with ivory trinkets, bracelets, and even whole tusks for sale.”

“Internet dealers profit off of every piece of elephant ivory sold on their Web sites, and every piece of that ivory came from a dead elephant.”

International trade in wildlife is estimated to reach well into the billions of US dollars annually – a black market rivaling the size of the international trade in illegal drugs and weapons.  Every year, more than 20,000 elephants are illegally slaughtered in Africa and Asia to meet demand for ivory products. African and Asian elephants are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the international Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

About IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare)

Founded in 1969, IFAW works around the globe to protect animals and habitats promoting practical solutions for animals and people. To learn how you can help, please visit www.ifaw.org.

Contacts:   
Chris Cutter (IFAW) – Tel: +1 (508) 744-2066; ccutter@ifaw.org

Colleen Cullen (IFAW) – Tel: +1 (508) 648-3586; ccullen@ifaw.org

 

Mongolian Wildlife to be Recorded on Film

Written by Kirril Shields
Friday, October 17, 2008
MONGOLIAN wildlife will soon be captured, on camera that is. A Wildlife Picture Index programme is set to begin in January of 2009, aiming to ‘camera trap’ Mongolian mammal and bird species. The program intends to help scientists gain an understanding of population figures and biodiversity across an array of environments, from desert, to steppe, to the rugged and snow-capped mountains of the taiga.

While the WPI was trialled on a small scale in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sapo National Park, Liberia, and to a lesser degree in other locations around the world, it will be used for the first time on a large scale to record Mongolian wildlife. “This is a great step for Mongolia,” says Eleanor Monks of the Zoological Society of London. “It gives us the opportunity to monitor data deficient species which are rarely seen by the public eye.”
In addition to catching a glimpse of rare and elusive animals such as the Gobi bear, the snow leopard, or the long-eared jerboa, zoologists and scientists are hoping to discover new species of mammals and birds.
The WPI program will also provide insight into a species’ habits -including nocturnal activity- build an understanding of how these animals live, and reveal the impact mining and deforestation have on species’ populations.

According to the team establishing Mongolia’s WPI program, the use of photographic imagery is an effective way of enthusing and educating the public about wildlife by producing vivid colour pictures of rare or, as yet, undiscovered animals.

The camera trapping will be implemented by the Zoological Society of London (through the Steppe Forward Programme), the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Mongolian Academy of Science.

According to Cambridge University, the benefits of camera trapping are that it “offers a non-obtrusive, low cost, verifiable, simple and effective means of meeting objectives across disparate sites.” The objectives, they continue, include “monitoring trends in the diversity, abundance, and distribution of a broad range of terrestrial mammals and birds, including nocturnal, rare and elusive animals.”

The majority of funds for the project’s first year have been supplied by the World Bank. The program will employ roughly six foreign scientists, including two project leaders, four young Mongolian scientists, two Mongolian student interns, and as many as sixty herdsmen from the aimags where the cameras will be placed.
Led by Dr. Jonathan Baillie from ZSL (based at London’s Regent Park Zoo), Monks and Dr. Amanda Fine from the Mongolian office of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the program will monitor six sites around the country: three in central and southern Mongolia, three others far to the west of Ulaanbaatar.

Mongolia, according to the report Silent Steppe: The Illegal Wildlife Trade Crisis in Mongolia, has a “flourishing illegal and wildlife trade, now estimated to be worth more than US$ 100 million annually.” Add to this the depletion of forests and the impact mining companies can have on the environment, and the future of Mongolia’s rare and depleted species may be grim. In 2006, for example, the population of red deer in Mongolia was said to have declined by 92 percent over the last 18 years.

In 2006, Baille enumerated some of the environmental problems Mongolia currently faces. “Mongolia was once a refuge for Central Asia’s mammals, but the Mongolian steppe is now being silently cleared of its wildlife. Even the marmot, a large rodent, is estimated to have declined 75 percent over the past 12 years, due to hunting.”
Others seem to agree. “Mongolia’s growing population and changing lifestyles are intensifying pressures on the country’s fragile ecosystems,” a World Bank report states. “Overgrazing is degrading significant areas and displacing wildlife from its habitat. Pollution from industrial and urban growth is negatively affecting environmental quality. Moreover, hampering progress in the management of and protection of the environment is a conspicuous lack of human and financial resources.”

The Wildlife Picture Index hopes to reverse some of these trends. Implementing the program, according to ZSL, means that “robust monitoring will take place so that the scope and severity of the problem can be defined, communicated and defended.” The society hopes this project will in turn lead to public and government awareness initiatives, launched both by Mongolia and the world at large.

http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2333

WWF Mongolia’s pilot compensation scheme for livestock predation by the snow leopard

 

WWF Mongolia‘s pilot compensation scheme for livestock predation by the snow leopard

WWF Mongolia has initiated the Compensation scheme for livestock predation by the Snow leopard in order to reduce the retaliation kill rate for Snow leopards.

The Compensation Scheme is implementing initially in buffer zone of the Turgen Mountain SPA. The experience can be scaled up depending on the success rate. In the initial phase, following issues will be addressed;

• Update the Garag documentary on Snow leopards with this type of info

• Discussion of the Herder households enrolled into the compensation scheme

• Publish awareness raising and information brochures on the Compensation Scheme

• Sign the Contracts/Agreements by herders for enrollment into the Scheme

WWF Mongolia’s multi-year conservation and research activities ever since 1997 targeting Snow leopards have been carried out on the proposed site. The site was featured in 2 filming that took place in 2004 and 2007. The area is the snow leopard’s core habitat according to scientific findings and there is an overlap and habitat competition with livestock from 6-8 herder families. The multi-year report on livestock predation confirms that loss of livestock reaches 10 heads per annum. For now, 2 families loss is affirmed by criteria and documentation as noted in MoU and they have received 6 sheep as compensation.

Exclusive photo of a snow leopard in the Khumbu Valley of Sagarmatha National Park.

NAMCHE, Nepal — Crouched on the edge of an overhang, looking at his prey. Here’s one of the few spectacular photos of a snow leopard living in Nepali forests. The shooting was done by a local photographer, Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa, who managed to immortalize this rare Asian feline near Namche village, in the heart of the Sagarmatha National Park.

Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa caught this beautiful snow leopard some days ago in the forest. A precious sighting, given that last months, this animal seemed to have disappeared over the Nepali mountains.

The first sighting of the leopard goes up about 20 days ago, when a collaborator of the photographer had the news of a tahr killed by a snow leopard in Nyershye. A few days after, some local people informed the researchers working in the Sagarmatha National Park that another tahr was killed in Dambagkok.

Lhakpa and a man of the Snp staff left immediately, at about 3.30 am, to search for the snow leopard. The night time, however, prevented them from seeing anything in the environment. After a long wait, at about 5.30 am, the two finally saw the feline near the carcass of a tahr.

However, the shadows of dawn and the darkness of the forest  didn’t allow them to make a photo sufficiently clear.

So Lhakpa moved toward another side, and succeeded in framing and photographing the feline on the prominence of a overhang. This is the spectacular result of his work: 

http://www.evk2cnr.org/en/node/1275

Second Snow Leopard Collared in Mongolia Project

We are pleased to report that early in the morning on 14 September 2008, a second male snow leopard was captured and radio-collared in Mongolia’s South Gobi Province as part of a new long-term ecological study of the rare and endangered cats. The research team named the cat “Bayartai”, meaning “go with joy” in Mongolian, an appropriate sentiment since two of the researchers involved were leaving the study area that day after about 6 weeks of trapping effort.  An automated trap camera at the site recorded the cat entering the snare just 15 minutes before the research team’s regular morning trap check. The 44 kg (97 pound) cat was immobilized for approximately one hour before slipping back up the hillside away from the trap site.

The snow leopard becomes the second subject of a collaborative study being undertaken by the Snow Leopard Trust (SLT), Panthera, Felidae Conservation Fund (FCF), the Mongolian Ministry of Nature and Environment (MNE), and the Biological Institute of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences (MAS). The study was launched in May of this year with the establishment of a research center in the Tost Mountains, which are part of the Altai range. The study site, on the edge of the Gobi Desert, supports one of the richest populations of snow leopards in Mongolia, a country which itself boasts the second highest
number of the rare cats anywhere in their vast Asian range.

On another positive note, the GPS collar on the first young adult male snow leopard captured on 19 August 2008 (named “Aztai”) is performing very well: nearly 75% of scheduled GPS locations are successfully uploading via satellite phone to SLT headquarters in Seattle. This recently allowed researchers to track Aztai to a large ibex kill, something they could not do without close to real-time information on cat movements.

For more information on the study, visit the websites of the cooperating organizations:
Snow Leopard Trust: www.snowleopard.org
Panthera:  www.panthera.org
Felidae Conservation Fund:  www.felidaefund.org

 

Living with leopards in Northern Pakistan

06 August 2008 | News story from IUCN website

An innovative scheme encouraging local communities to live peacefully with leopards has reached a new milestone by extending its range to three new communities in Northern Pakistan.

Since June 2005, there have been 13 leopards killed in the Abbottabat district of Pakistan, after a rogue animal tragically attacked and killed a reported 6 people. Before then, predation on livestock had been the main cause of retaliation towards leopards, which escalated dramatically after the fatal attacks.

The aim of the project is to find a mutually beneficial solution to the human-leopard conflict. It is supported by IUCN’s small grants programme the Sir Peter Scott Fund. The community-based ‘livestock insurance scheme’ was created to reduce the economic losses to farmers when their animals are killed by leopards. The funds are managed and administered by the local community themselves, and has proven to be very successful.

“This scheme provides a tangible incentive to local communities to support conservation and find ways to live in harmony with leopards,” says Muhammad Waseem, Research Officer for the project.

Launched back in March 2006, membership of the scheme has steadily grown ever since. There is now government interest in bringing the initiative to new areas of Pakistan. Three new Abbottabat communities – Bako, Lahur Kus and Thandiani – have approached the project and are in the process of being included into the scheme.

For more information about this project contact: Muhammad Waseem, Research Officer, ‘Leopard Conservation in Pakistan’ at mwaseemwwf@gmail.com

http://cms.iucn.org/what/species/index.cfm?uNewsID=1415

First Snow Leopard Captured in Long-Term Ecological Study in Mongolia

In the early morning of 19 August a young adult male snow leopard was captured and fitted with a GPS collar in Mongolia‘s South Gobi Province as part of a new long-term ecological study of the rare and endangered cats. The collar is designed to collect highly accurate locations for the cat three times each day using a GPS unit embedded in the collar, and then immediately relay the data to researchers via the Globalstar satellite phone system.  This is the first time such technology has been utilized in the study of these endangered cats.

The snow leopard, which the research team named Aztai (meaning “Lucky” in Mongolian) becomes the first subject of a collaborative study being undertaken by the Snow Leopard Trust (SLT), Panthera, Felidae Conservation Fund (FCF), the Mongolian Ministry of Nature and Environment (MNE), and the Biological Institute of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences (MAS).

The study was launched in May of this year with the establishment of a research center in the Tost Mountains, which are part of the Altai range. The study site, on the edge of the Gobi Desert, supports one of the richest populations of snow leopards in Mongolia, a country which itself boasts the second highest number of the rare cats anywhere in their vast Asian range. For the past three months an international team of biologists from Mongolia, India and Argentina has surveyed the area’s valleys and ridgelines using automated digital cameras to establish a minimum population estimate and to identify the travel routes where the cats might most easily be captured for the study.  More than 260 pictures of snow leopards were analyzed revealing at least four cats that use an area within 30 km2 of the research center. 

In early August additional team members arrived from Sweden, Austria and the USA to initiate capturing and collaring.  Seventeen foot hold snares were deployed, each with a radio transmitter attached to quickly alert the team of a tripped snare and a potential capture, a measure that greatly reduces the chances of injury to the animal.  Exactly one week after the capture work was initiated, a signal from a snare just 300 meters from camp was received during an early morning radio check.  Two Mongolian SLT biologists, L. Purevjav and S. Purevsuren, were the first on the scene and found the 36.5 kg (80 lb) cat lying calmly at the base of a cliff.  “It was so beautiful, it’s hard to explain how exciting it was to first see him”, said Purevjav of finding the cat.  The sedation, conducted by Swedish Ph.D. student Orjan Johansson with assistance from Austrian veterinarian Dr. Chris Walzer, went smoothly.  In less than an hour the collar was attached, the immobilizing drug reversed, and the handsome cat had retreated silently back into the mountains.

The high-tech collar is programmed to operate for 13 months before it automatically opens and falls off.  Researchers will then retrieve the collar and download any data that was not successfully uplinked via satellite phone. The comprehensive study, which is expected to run for 15 years or more, is the first of its kind and is designed to yield unprecedented data on the ecology of an animal that until now has been extremely difficult to research due to its secretive nature and remote habitat.  Only with the type and amount of information that this study will provide can conservation efforts for snow leopards have a chance of succeeding.


For additional background information on this study and frequent project updates visit the websites of the collaborating organizations:

www.snowleopard.org <http://www.snowleopard.org> www.panthera.org <http://www.panthera.org> www.felidaefund.org <http://www.felidaefund.org> www.mne.gov.mn

Illicit trade in big cat skins continues in China


By Paul Eccleston

The illicit trade in skins from Asian big cats is still flourishing in China.

July 15, 2008- The skins of snow leopards, leopards and tigers are openly on sale in shops, an investigation has revealed.

Photographic evidence of cat skins on sale in China
Photographic evidence of cat skins on sale in China

Buyers come from all over China to purchase the skins which are marketed as rugs or taxidermy specimens.

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) which exposes environmental crimes a worldwide, found 13 snow leopard skins, 13 leopard skins and 1 whole tiger skin for sale in just one street during a five-day period in June 2008.

The gruesome skins could be seen on display in shops despite a ban on the trade. One trader questioned by investigators claimed he was tipped off by an ‘insider’ before a visit by the authorities giving him time to hide the skins.

All Asian big cats are becoming increasingly rare and all are protected under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

The 57th meeting of the Standing Committee of CITES is currently being held in Geneva where conservation groups will urge China to take tougher enforcement action against shops illegally trading in animal skins.

 

The Chinese authorities have been taking measures to curb the demand for products – particularly in Tibetan communities – which has helped wild tiger populations such as India, Nepal, Bhutan and Indonesia but numbers are still critically low.

EIA investigators travelled to Linxia, in Gansu Province after being tipped off that the trade continued to flourish.

Traders said there had been a fall in demand from the Tibetan community and this had resulted in a reduction in the number of shops which openly sold animal skins but the EIA found five traders who had previously been involved in selling Asian big cat skins.

Big cat skins for sale were said to have been sourced from Afghanistan, Burma, China (Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai, Xinjiang), India, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia and Vietnam.

One trader offered a whole tiger skin and said that a contact in the local Forest Bureau alerted him in advance of Bureau inspections.

The latest EIA investigation of 30 shops in Beida Jie (Beida Street) found a total of 14 shops offering to sell illegal skins. They were able to see:

Evidence of skins on sale collected by the Environmental Investigation Agency
Evidence of skins on sale collected by the Environmental Investigation Agency

• 9 whole snow leopard skins

• 4 snow leopard skins made into rugs

• 13 whole leopard skins

• 5 pieces of leopard skin trim

• 1 whole tiger skin

• 1 piece of tiger skin trim.

Two more shop owners said they did not have Asian big cat skins on the premises but could supply snow leopard and tiger skin.

EIA admitted that enforcement efforts in China to date had resulted in the confiscation of 30 snow leopard and 51 leopard skins between 2003 and 2007 but claimed these were only cosmetic actions and there was an urgent need for more covert, pro-active, coordinated, intelligence-led raids against known and persistent offenders.

In May 2008 China claimed that China that the open availability of Asian big cat skins had almost been eliminated after one trader found in possession of 27 snow leopard skins and snow leopard bone leopard, bear and lynx skins was jailed for 11 years and fined $14,600.