Abstract: Snow leopards are to be found in the most extreme eastern, southeastern and southern mountainous regions, including the Altai. Saur, Tarbagatai. Dzhungarian, Alatau, Northern and Western Tian-Shan ranges. The snow leopard or irbis is the most rare in eastern Kazakstan in the ranges of Katunskie Belki, South Altai, Kurchumski, Sarymsakty, Saur and Tarbagatai. Total snow leopard population in Kazakstan is estimated at no more than 100-110 animals, including 20-25 in the central part of the Zailisky-Alatau. Although there are nine protected areas in Kazakstan, snow leopards are only regularly reported
from the Aksu-Dzhabagly and Almaty reserves and occasionally in Markakolsky Reserve. The major threats to the species include: Deliberate poaching with the aim of selling the valuable fur of the snow leopard; habitat loss resulting from the expansion of human activity in its mountain habitat, and deliberate or retaliatory killing by shepherds in response to predation upon livestock.

Abstract: Snow leopards inhabit the cold, arid environments of the high
mountains of South and Central Asia. These living conditions likely
affect the abundance and composition of microbes with the capacity to
infect these animals. It is important to investigate the microbes that
snow leopards are exposed to detect infectious disease threats and
define a baseline for future changes that may impact the health of this
endangered felid. In this work, next-generation sequencing is used to
investigate the fecal (and in a few cases serum) virome of seven snow
leopards from the Tost Mountains of Mongolia. The viral species to which
the greatest number of sequences reads showed high similarity was
rotavirus. Excluding one animal with overall very few sequence reads,
four of six animals (67%) displayed evidence of rotavirus infection. A
serum sample of a male and a rectal swab of a female snow leopard
produced sequence reads identical or closely similar to felid
herpesvirus 1, providing the first evidence that this virus infects snow
leopards. In addition, the rectal swab from the same female also
displayed sequence reads most similar to feline papillomavirus 2, which
is the first evidence for this virus infecting snow leopards. The rectal
swabs from all animals also showed evidence for the presence of small
circular DNA viruses, predominantly Circular Rep-Encoding
Single-Stranded (CRESS) DNA viruses and in one case feline anellovirus.
Several of the viruses implicated in the present study could affect the
health of snow leopards. In animals which are under environmental
stress, for example, young dispersing individuals and lactating females,
health issues may be exacerbated by latent virus infections.

Abstract: Snow leopards Panthera uncia are under threat across their range and require urgent conservation actions based on sound science. However, their remote habitat and cryptic nature make them inherently difficult to study and past attempts have provided insufficient information upon which to base effective conservation. Further, there has been no statistically-reliable and cost-effective method available to monitor snow leopard populations, focus conservation effort on key populations, or assess conservation impacts. To address these multiple information needs, Panthera, Snow Leopard Trust, and Snow Leopard Conservation Fund, launched an ambitious long-term study in Mongolia’s South Gobi province in 2008. To date, 10 snow leo-pards have been fitted with GPS-satellite collars to provide information on basic snow leopard ecology. Using 2,443 locations we calculated MCP home ranges of 150 – 938 km2, with substantial overlap between individuals. Exploratory movements outside typical snow leopard habitat have been observed. Trials of camera trapping, fecal genetics, and occupancy modeling, have been completed. Each method ex-hibits promise, and limitations, as potential monitoring tools for this elusive species.

Abstract: Snow Leopards, in a genus of their own, are endangered big cats. They inhabit rugged,
mountainous terrain, in 12 range States – Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
There are regional differences in prey, but the cats' natural prey includes ungulates and rodents.
The global population of Snow Leopards is estimated to be between about 4000 and 7000, but
sharp declines in populations have been reported over the past decade from parts of the species's
range. High levels of hunting for the animals' skins and for live animals, for zoos, during the
last century contributed to the species's endangered status and, from the 1970s, legal measures
were taken for its protection. In 1975, the species was listed in Appendix I of CITES (the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora) and in 1985 it
became an Appendix-I species of the Convention of Migratory Species. It has been accorded
nation-wide legal protection in almost every range State, in some cases since the 1970s. In spite
of such provision, Snow Leopards have been hunted during the 1990s in numbers as high as at
any time in the past and this killing continues in the present century. This report details the status of illegal poaching and trade in snow leopards in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Abstract: Some ideas of biodiversity conservation in the West Tien Shan (first of all large mammals such as ibex, moral, brown bear, and snow leopard) including an idea of limited trophy hunt are discussed.