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 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: 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: Snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are elusive endangered carnivores found in remote mountain regions of Central Asia. New methods for identifying and counting snow leopards are needed for conservation and management efforts. To develop molecular genetic tools for individual identification of hair and faecal samples, we screened 50 microsatellite loci developed for the domestic cat (Felis catus) in 19 captive snow leopards. Forty-eight loci were polymorphic with numbers of alleles per locus ranging from two to 11. The probability of observing matching genotypes for unrelated individuals (2.1 x10-11) and siblings (7.5x10-5) using the 10 most polymorphic loci was low, suggesting that this panel would easily discriminate among individuals in the wild.

Abstract: Livestock depredation by the endangered snow leopard (Panthera uncia) _is an increasingly contentious issue in Himalayan villages, especially in or near protected areas. Mass attacks in which as many as 100 sheep and goats are killed in a single incident inevitably result in retaliation by local villagers. This article describes a community-based conservation initiative to address this problem in Hemis National Park, India. Human-wildlife conflict is alleviated by predator-proofing villagers' nighttime livestock pens and by enhancing household incomes in environmentally sensitive and culturally compatible ways. The authors have found that the highly participatory strategy described here (Appreciative Participatory Planning and Action-APPA) leads to a sense of project ownership by local stakeholders, communal empowerment, self-reliance, and willingness to co-exist with
snow leopards. The most significant conservation outcome of this process is the protection from retaliatory poaching of up to five snow leopards for every village's livestock pens that are made predator-proof._