Augugliaro, C., Christe, P., Janchivlamdan, C., Baymanday, H.,
Zimmermann, F. (2020). Patterns of human interaction with snow leopard and co-predators
in the Mongolian western Altai: Current issues and perspectives. Global Ecology and Conservation, 24, 1–21.
Abstract: Large carnivores can cause considerable economic damage,
mainly due to livestock depredation. These conficts instigate negative
attitude towards their conservation, which could in the extreme case
lead to retaliatory killing. Here we focus on the snow leopard (Panthera
uncia), a species of conservation concern with particularly large
spatial requirements. We conducted the study in the Bayan Olgii
province, one of the poorest provinces of Mongolia, where the majority
of the human population are traditional herders. We conducted a survey
among herders (N 261) through a semi-structured questionnaire with the
aim to assess: the current and future herding practices and prevention
measures, herders’ perceptions and knowledge of the environmental
protection and hunting laws; the perceived livestock losses to snow
leopard, wolf (Canis lupus), and wolverine (Gulo gulo), as well as to
non-predatory factors; the key factors affecting livestock losses to
these three large carnivores; and, finally, the attitudes towards these
three large carnivores. Non-predatory causes of mortality were slightly
higher than depredation cases, representing 4.5% and 4.3% of livestock
holdings respectively. While no depredation of livestock was reported
from wolverines, snow leopard and wolf depredation made up 0.2% and 4.1%
of total livestock holdings, respectively. Herders’ attitudes towards
the three large carnivores were negatively affected by the magnitude of
the damages since they had a positive overall attitude towards both snow
leopard and wolverine, whereas the attitude towards wolf was negative.
We discuss conservation and management options to mitigate herder-snow
leopard impacts. To palliate the negative consequences of the increasing
trend in livestock numbers, herd size reduction should be encouraged by
adding economic value to the individual livestock and/or by promoting
alternative income and/or ecotourism. Furthermore, co-management between
government and stakeholders would help tackle this complex problem, with
herders playing a major role in the development of livestock management
strategies. Traditional practices, such as regularly shifting campsites
and using dogs and corrals at night, could reduce livestock losses
caused by snow leopards.
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Singh, R., Krausman, P. R., Pandey, P., Maheshwari, A., Rawal,
R. S., Sharma, S., Shekhar, S. (2020). Predicting Habitat Suitability of Snow Leopards in the Western
Himalayan Mountains, India. Biology bulletin, 47(6), 655–664.
Abstract: The population of snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is declining
across their range, due to poaching, habitat fragmentation, retaliatory
killing, and a decrease of wild prey species. Obtaining information on
rare and cryptic predators living in remote and rugged terrain is
important for making conservation and management strategies. We used the
Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) ecological niche modeling framework to predict
the potential habitat of snow leopards across the western Himalayan
region, India. The model was developed using 34 spatial species
occurrence points in the western Himalaya, and 26 parameters including,
prey species distribution, temperature, precipitation, land use and land
cover (LULC), slope, aspect, terrain ruggedness and altitude. Thirteen
variables contributed 98.6% towards predicting the distribution of snow
leopards. The area under the curve (AUC) score was high (0.994) for the
training data from our model, which indicates pre- dictive ability of
the model. The model predicted that there was 42432 km2 of potential
habitat for snow leop- ards in the western Himalaya region. Protected
status was available for 11247 km2 (26.5%), but the other 31185 km2
(73.5%) of potential habitat did not have any protected status. Thus,
our approach is useful for predicting the distribution and suitable
habitats and can focus field surveys in selected areas to save
resources, increase survey success, and improve conservation efforts for
snow leopards.
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Korablev, M. P., Poyarkov, A. D., Karnaukhov, A. S., Zvychaynaya, E. Y., Kuksin, A. N., Malykh, S. V., Istomov, S. V., Spitsyn, S. V., Aleksandrov, D. Y., Hernandez-Blanco, J. A., Munkhtsog, B., Munkhtogtokh, O., Putintsev, N. I., Vereshchagin, A. S., Becmurody, A., Afzunov, S., Rozhnov, V. V. (2021). Large-scale and fine-grain population structure and genetic diversity of snow leopards (Panthera uncia Schreber, 1776) from the northern and western parts of the range with an emphasis on the Russian population. Conservation Genetics, .
Abstract: The snow leopard (Panthera uncia Schreber, 1776) population in Russia and Mongolia is situated at the northern edge of the range, where instability of ecological conditions and of prey availability may serve as prerequisites for demographic instability and, consequently, for reducing the genetic diversity. Moreover, this northern area of the species distribution is connected with the western and central parts by only a few small fragments of potential habitats in the Tian-Shan spurs in China and Kazakhstan. Given this structure of the range, the restriction of gene flow between the northern and other regions of snow leopard distribution can be expected. Under these conditions, data on population genetics would be extremely important for assessment of genetic diversity, population structure and gene flow both at regional and large-scale level. To investigate large-scale and fine-grain population structure and levels of genetic diversity we analyzed 108 snow leopards identified from noninvasively collected scat samples from Russia and Mongolia (the northern part of the range) as well as from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (the western part of the range) using panel of eight polymorphic microsatellites. We found low to moderate levels of genetic diversity in the studied populations. Among local habitats, the highest heterozygosity and allelic richness were recorded in Kyrgyzstan (He = 0.66 ± 0.03, Ho = 0.70 ± 0.04, Ar = 3.17) whereas the lowest diversity was found in a periphery subpopulation in Buryatia Republic of Russia (He = 0.41 ± 0.12, Ho = 0.29 ± 0.05, Ar = 2.33). In general, snow leopards from the western range exhibit greater genetic diversity (He = 0.68 ± 0.04, Ho = 0.66 ± 0.03, Ar = 4.95) compared to those from the northern range (He = 0.60 ± 0.06, Ho = 0.49 ± 0.02, Ar = 4.45). In addition, we have identified signs of fragmentation in the northern habitat, which have led to significant genetic divergence between subpopulations in Russia. Multiple analyses of genetic structure support considerable genetic differentiation between the northern and western range parts, which may testify to subspecies subdivision of snow leopards from these regions. The observed patterns of genetic structure are evidence for delineation of several management units within the studied populations, requiring individual approaches for conservation initiatives, particularly related to translocation events. The causes for the revealed patterns of genetic structure and levels of genetic diversity are discussed.
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Alexander, J. S., Agvaantseren, B., Gongor, E., Mijiddorj, T. N., Piaopiao, T., Stephen Redpath, S., Young, J., Mishra, C. (2021). Assessing the Effectiveness of a Community-based Livestock Insurance Program. Environmental Management, .
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Khanal, G., Mishra, C., Suryawanshi, K. R. (2020). Relative influence of wild prey and livestock abundance on
carnivore-caused livestock predation. Ecology and Evolution, , 1–11.
Abstract: Conservation conflict over livestock depredation is one of the
key drivers of large mammalian carnivore declines worldwide. Mitigating
this conflict requires strategies informed by reliable knowledge of
factors influencing livestock depredation. Wild prey and livestock
abundance are critical factors influencing the extent of livestock
depredation. We compared whether the extent of livestock predation by
snow leopards Panthera uncia differed in relation to densities of wild
prey, livestock, and snow leopards at two sites in Shey Phoksundo
National Park, Nepal. We used camera trap-based spatially explicit
capture–recapture models to estimate snow leopard density;
double-observer surveys to estimate the density of their main prey
species, the blue sheep Pseudois nayaur; and interview-based household
surveys to estimate livestock population and number of livestock killed
by snow leopards. The proportion of livestock lost per household was
seven times higher in Upper Dolpa, the site which had higher snow
leopard density (2.51 snow leopards per 100 km2) and higher livestock
density (17.21 livestock per km2) compared to Lower Dolpa (1.21 snow
leopards per 100 km2; 4.5 livestock per km2). The wild prey density was
similar across the two sites (1.81 and 1.57 animals per km2 in Upper and
Lower Dolpa, respectively). Our results suggest that livestock
depredation level may largely be determined by the abundances of the
snow leopards and livestock and predation levels on livestock can vary
even at similar levels of wild prey density. In large parts of the snow
leopard range, livestock production is indispensable to local
livelihoods and livestock population is expected to increase to meet the
demand of cashmere. Hence, we recommend that any efforts to increase
livestock populations or conservation initiatives aimed at recovering or
increasing snow leopard population be accompanied by better herding
practices (e.g., predator-proof corrals) to protect livestock from snow
leopard.
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Maheshwari, A., Sathyakumar, S. (2020). Patterns of Livestock Depredation and Large Carnivore
Conservation Implications in the Indian Trans-Himalaya. Journal of Arid Environments, , 1–5.
Abstract: Livestock is one of the major sources of livelihood for the
agro-pastoral communities in central and south Asia. Livestock
depredation by large carnivores is a wide-ranging issue that leads to
economic losses and a deviance from co-existence. We investigated the
grass root factors causing livestock depredation in Kargil, Ladakh and
tested the findings of diet analysis in validating reported livestock
depredation. Globally vulnerable snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and more
common wolf (Canis lupus) were the two main wild predators. A total of
1113 heads of livestock were reportedly killed by wolf (43.6%) followed
by unknown predators (31.4%) and snow leopard (21.5%) in the study site
from 2009 to 2012, which comes to 2.8% annual livestock losses. Scat
analysis also revealed a significant amount of livestock in the diet of
snow leopard (47%) and wolf (51%). Poor livestock husbandry practices
and traditional livestock corrals were found to be the major drivers
contributing in the livestock depredation. Based on the research
findings, we worked with the local communities to sensitize them about
wildlife conservation and extended limited support for predator proof
livestock corrals at a small scale. Eventually it helped in reducing
conflict level and conserving the globally threatened carnivores. We
conclude that a participatory approach has been successful to generate
an example in reducing large carnivore-human conflict in the west
Himalaya.
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Vannelli, K., Hampton, M. P., Namgail, T., Black, S. A. (2019). Community participation in ecotourism and its effect on local
perceptions of snow leopard (Panthera uncia) conservation. Human Dimensions of Wildlife, , 1–14.
Abstract: Local support and involvement is often essential for effective
wildlife conservation. This study assessed the impact of local
involvement in ecotourism schemes on perceptions of wildlife, promotion
of conservation action, types of values that communities placed on
wildlife, and contexts in which wildlife are considered to be most
valuable. The study used qualitative semi-structured interviews
conducted in seven villages in Ladakh, India, which is an important
region of snow leopard (Panthera uncia) habitat. Results indicated that
in these communities, ecotourism-based interventions encourage more
positive perceptions of wildlife species, in particular the snow
leopard. Achieving change in community perceptions of wildlife is key
when implementing ecotourism schemes to enable more effective
conservation, as well as generating local awareness and value for
wildlife toward problematic keystone species such as the snow leopard,
which are frequently the focus of human-wildlife conflict.
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Rode, J., Pelletier, A., Fumey, J., Rode, S., Cabanat, A. L., Ouvrard, A., Chaix, B., White, B., Harnden, M., Xuan, N. T., Vereshagin, A., Casane, D. (2020). Diachronic monitoring of snow leopards at Sarychat-Ertash State Reserve (Kyrgyzstan) through scat genotyping: a pilot study. bioRxiv, , 1–21.
Abstract: Snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are a keystone species of Central Asia’s high mountain ecosystem. The species is listed as vulnerable and is elusive, preventing accurate population assessments that could inform conservation actions. Non-invasive genetic monitoring conducted by citizen scientists offers avenues to provide key data on this species that would otherwise be inaccessible. From 2011 to 2015, OSI-Panthera citizen science expeditions tracked signs of presence of snow leopards along transects in the main valleys and crests of the Sarychat-Ertash State Reserve (Kyrgyzstan). Scat samples were genotyped at seven autosomal microsatellite loci and at a X/Y locus for sex identification, which allowed estimating a minimum of 11 individuals present in the reserve from 2011 to 2015. The genetic recapture of 7 of these individuals enabled diachronic monitoring, providing indications of individuals’ movements throughout the reserve. We found putative family relationships between several individuals. Our results demonstrate the potential of this citizen science program to get a precise description of a snow leopard population through time.
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(2002). Snow Leopard Survival Summit Group Photograph.
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Anandakrishnan, M. B. (1998). The snow leopard: Elusive and endangered. The Environmental Magazine, 9(5), 18–19.
Abstract: The snow leopard has never been common, but there may be fewer than 4,000 left in its Himalayan habitat, and poaching and tourism-related development in the region could drive its numbers down further.
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