Abstract: Full Text:
Xining, China Daily, Jan. 31--Police have detained a man for trying to smuggle two dead snow leopards, an endangered species under State protection, through the Xining Railway Station in Northwest China's Qinghai Province. Ma Deliang was stopped by police after he attempted to pass the butchered snow leopards off as beef at a shop in Sichuan Province. Ma later confessed that he bought the dead snow leopards at a local market and wanted to smuggle them to Deyang in Sichuan Province. Police also searched Ma's home and found dear heads, antlers and lynx and fox furs. Snow leopards live in highlands of altitudes between 3,000 to 6,000 metres above sea level. The population of the species has dwindled greatly since the 19th century.

Abstract: Police have detained a man for trying to smuggle two snow leopards through the Xining Railway Station in northwest China's Qinghai Province. Ma Deliang was stopped by police after he attempted to pass the butchered snow leopards off as “beef” at a shop in Sichuan in southwest China. Suspicious of the contents in Ma's big sack, police asked experts from the local forestry bureau to check the meat and they found it to be flesh of two snow leopards, an endangered species on top state protection. Ma later confessed that he bought the dead snow leopards at a local market and wanted to smuggle them to Deyang, a city in southwest China's Sichuan province. Police also searched Ma's home and found dear heads, antlers and lynx and fox furs. Snow leopards live in highlands of altitudes between 3,000 to 6, 000 m above sea level. The population of the species has dwindled greatly since the 19th century.

Abstract: From March to May, 2006œªwe conducted extensive snow leopard surveys in the Burhanbuda Mountain Kunlun Mountains, Qinghai Province, China. 32 linear transect of 5~15 km each, which running through each vegetation type, were surveyed within the study area. A total of 72 traces of snow leopard were found along 4 transects (12.5% of total transects). The traces included pug marks or footprints, scrapes and urine marks. We estimated the average density of wild ungulates in the region was 2.88ñ0.35 individuals km-2(n=29). We emplaced 16 auto2 trigger cameras in different environments and eight photos of snow leopard were shot by four cameras and the capture rate of snow leopard was 71.4%. The minimum snow leopard population size in the Burhanbuda Mountain was two, because two snow leopards were phototrapped by different cameras at almost same time. Simultaneously, the cameras also shot 63 photos of other wild animals, including five photos are unidentified wild animals, and 20 photos of livestock. We evaluated the human attitudes towards snow leopard by interviewing with 27 Tibetan householders of 30 householders live in the study area. We propose to establish a nature reserve for protecting and managing snow leopards in the region. Snow leopard (Uncia uncia) is considered as a unique species because it lives above the snow line, it is endemic to alpines in Central Asia, inhabiting in 12 countries across Central Asia (Fox, 1992). Snow leopard ranges in alpine areas in Qinghai, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Gansu and Sichuan in western China (Liao, 1985, 1986; Zhou, 1987; Ma et al., 2002; Jiang & Xu, 2006). The total population and habitat of snow leopards in China are estimated to be 2,000~2,500 individuals and 1,824,316 km2, only 5% of which is under the protection of nature reserves. The cat's current range is fragmented (Zou & Zheng, 2003). Due to strong human persecutions, populations of snow leopards decreased significantly since the end of the 20th century. Thus, the
snow leopards are under the protection of international and domestic laws. From March to May, 2006, we conducted two field surveys in Zhiyu Village, Dulan County in Burhanbuda Mountain, Kunlun Mountains, China to determine the population, distribution and survival status of snow leopards in the area. The aim of the study was to provide ecologic data for snow leopard conservation.