Abstract: Origination of fauna complexes in Uzbekistan from the Mustier period to present time is described. The remains of brown bear, cave hyena, wolf, fox, corsac, stone marten, badger, and snow leopard were found in cave Amankutan (western extremities of the Zaravshan ridge). Cattle breeding and farming has begun since mesolite; cave bear, Stenon horse, Pleistocene donkey, camel and aurochs dropped from the region's fauna, while marchor and striped hyena moved to the Hissar ridge, Babatag and Kugitang mountains from south; jackal, chaus, tiger, and Iranian otter settled along the river valleys. In the Neolith and Bronze Age cattle breeding and farming continued to develop, while hunting was less important. Mass hinting for animals in the time of Alexander the Great, Chingiz Khan, and Babur, the ruler of Fergana, is described. Mass extermination of kulan, goitered gazelle, saiga, and other game species also took place later more than 12,000 saigas were killed during one hunt at the end of 19th century in the Volga region. Animals also die from natural disasters the “djut”. Data concerning a current status of goitered gazelle, saiga, Bukhara deer, marchor, Severtsev's sheep, and urial is given.

Abstract: The work contains data on biology snow leopard in Hissar nature reserve, Uzbekistan. The number of snow leopards in this reserve has increased from two or four in 1981 to between 13 and 17 individuals in 1994. Since 1981, snow leopards have been sighted 72 times and their tracks or pugmarks 223 times. In the Hissar Nature Reserve snow leopards largely feed on ibex. Over a period of 14 years, 92 kills and remains of ibex aged from one to thirteen years of age have been examined. Other records of predation, by the number of events observed, include 33 cases of juvenile and mature horses, 25 long-tailed marmot (Marmota caudata). 18 Himalayan snowcock (Tetraogallus himalayemis), 17 domestic goat, 13 wild boar (Sus scrofa), five domestic sheep and three incidents involving cattle. Twenty-two attacks on domestic flocks were reported, and these occurred during both the daytime and at night. Snow leopards usually mate between the 20th of February and March 20th. The offspring are born in late April to May, and there are usually two per litter (23 encounters), although a single litter of three has also been recorded.

Abstract: Phoo village in the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) in Nepal is located at 4,052 m als physically
in the central north of the country. Livestock keeping is the main activity of the people for making a
living amidst a conflict with snow leopard (Uncia uncia). Each year snow leopard kills a number of
livestock resulting significant economic losses for the poor people living in this remote area. Unless
the people – snow leopard conflict is well understood and appropriate conflict management activities
are implemented, the long run co-existence between people and snow leopard – especially the
existence of snow leopard in this part of the world -will be in question. This has now become an
utmost important as the aspiration of the people for economic development has risen significantly and
the area has been opened to tourism since spring 2002. In addition to this, the globalisation process has
directly and indirectly affected the traditional resource management practices and co-existence
strategies of many traditional societies including Phoo.
The livestock depredation for 3 years (2001 – 2004) by snow leopard was studied by interviewing the
herders to understand the responsible and specific bio-physical and socio-economic factors. The study
revealed that goats are most depredated species followed by sheep. Winter months (January – April)
and winter pastures are most vulnerable to snow leopard predation. Presence of bushes, forest and
boulders make good hides for snow leopard resulting into high depredation. The study also showed
that a lax animal guarding system was significantly responsible for high livestock depredation by snow
leopard.
The study showed that improvement in livestock guarding system should be adopted as the most
important activity. However despite the importance of livestock in the economy of Phoo it is still not
well understood why the herders neglect for proper livestock guarding. This requires further study.
Proper guarding system is required especially in winter season in winter pastures. It is also suggested
that there should be changes in the composition of livestock species by promoting more yaks and
discouraging or minimising goats. Yaks and large animals are less depredated and small animals like
goats and sheep are highly depredated by snow leopard. A trend was also observed in Phoo village
where there is an increase in the number of yaks and a decrease in the number of goats over last few
years. This could be a management response of the herders to livestock depredation. Other protective
measures of the livestock at the corrals have also been recommended including promotion of guard
dogs and other measures.
Since the area is opened for tourism, it is suggested that the tourism opportunity for the economic
development of the area should be grasped so that the heavy dependence on livestock raising would be
minimised. This will help minimise the number of human – snow leopard conflicts.

Abstract: The Trans-Himalaya is a vast biogeographic region in the cold and arid rain-shadow of
the Greater Himalaya and is spread over three Indian states. From the conservation
standpoint this region has several unique characteristics. Unlike most other
biogeographic regions of the country, it has wildlife, including large mammals, spread
over the entire region. Another feature is that the harsh climate and topography
provides limited agricultural land and pastures, all of which are currently utilized by
people. The harsh environment has given rise to a specialized assemblage of flora and fauna in
the region that include the endangered snow leopard, a variety of wild sheep and goat,
Tibetan antelope, Tibetan gazelle, kiang and wild yak. The snow leopard is one of the
most charismatic species of the Trans-Himalaya. This apex predator, with a wide
distribution, has ecological importance and international appeal, and is eminently
suitable to be used as both a 'flagship' and an 'umbrella species' to anchor and guide
conservation efforts in the Trans-Himalayan region. Among the 10 Biogeographic Zones in the country, the Trans-Himalaya has a
comparatively large Protected Area (PA) coverage, with over 15,000 km2 (8.2 %) of
the geographical area under the network. In spite of this, the bulk of the large mammal
populations still exist outside the PAs, which include highly endangered species such
as snow leopard, chiru, wild yak, Ladakh urial, kiang and brown bear. Given the sparse resource availability in the Trans-Himalaya and the existing human
use patterns, there are few alternatives that can be provided to resource dependent
human communities in and around PAs. The existing PAs themselves pose formidable
conservation challenges and a further increase in their extent is impractical. The
problem is further compounded by the fact that some of the large PAs have unclear
boundaries and include vast stretches that do not have any direct wildlife values. These
issues call for an alternative strategy for conservation of the Trans-Himalayan tracts
based on a regional perspective, which includes reconciling conservation with
development. In this paper we stress that conservation issues of this region, such as competition for
forage between wild and domestic herbivores and human-wildlife conflicts need to be
addressed in a participatory manner. We suggest an alternative scheme to look at the
zonation of existing PAs and also the Trans-Himalayan region as a whole, to facilitate
better conservation in the region. Also, we emphasize that there is a vital need for
additional resources and a formal setup for regional planning and management under a
centrally sponsored scheme such as the 'Project Snow Leopard'.