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Alexander, J., S., Gopalaswamy, A., M., Shi, K., Hughes, J., Riordan, P. (2016). Patterns of Snow Leopard Site Use in an Increasingly Human-Dominated Landscape. PLoS ONE, , 1–15.
Abstract: Human population growth and concomitant increases in demand for natural resources pose threats to many wildlife populations. The landscapes used by the endangered snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and their prey is increasingly subject to major changes in land use. We aimed to assess the influence of 1) key human activities, as indicated by the presence of mining and livestock herding, and 2) the presence of a key prey species, the blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur), on probability of snow leopard site use across the landscape. In Gansu Province, China, we conducted sign surveys in 49 grid cells, each of 16 km2 in size, within a larger area of 3392 km2. We analysed the data using likelihood-based habitat occupancy models that explicitly account for imperfect detection and spatial auto-correlation between survey transect segments. The model-averaged estimate of snow leopard occupancy was high [0.75 (SE 0.10)], but only marginally higher than the naïve estimate (0.67). Snow leop- ard segment-level probability of detection, given occupancy on a 500 m spatial replicate, was also high [0.68 (SE 0.08)]. Prey presence was the main determinant of snow leopard site use, while human disturbances, in the form of mining and herding, had low predictive power. These findings suggest that snow leopards continue to use areas very close to such disturbances, as long as there is sufficient prey. Improved knowledge about the effect of human activity on large carnivores, which require large areas and intact prey populations, is urgently needed for conservation planning at the local and global levels. We highlight a number of methodological considerations that should guide the design of such research.
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Guoliang, P., Alexander, J. S., Riordan, P., Shi, K., Kederhan, Yang, H. (2016). Detection of a snow leopard population in northern Bortala, Xinjiang, China. Cat News, (63).
Abstract: We substantiate the presence of snow leopards Panthera uncia using camera
traps within the Dzungarian Alatau range in Bortala Mongolia Autonomous Prefecture,
Xinjiang Province, China. A total of 13 camera trap stations were set up in
2012 and a total of 14 camera trap stations in 2013 within an area of 192 km2. A total
of 11-15 individual adult snow leopards and two sub adults were identified from
photo captures of sufficient quality. A range of human activities were noted within
and surrounding the survey area, including livestock herding and mining. We recommend
more large scale and intensive camera trap surveys to further assess the
population status of the snow leopard within this area
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Nowell, K., Li, J., Paltsyn, M., Sharma, R. K. (2016). An ounce of prevention: Snow Leopard Crime Revisited.
Abstract: Snow Leopard poaching and trafficking – referred to herein as Snow Leopard crime – is revisited 13 years after TRAFFIC’s first report on the subject, Fading Footprints: The Killing and Trade of Snow Leopards (Theile, 2003). This report builds on a preliminary analysis published in May 2016 (Maheshwari and von Meibom, 2016). It addresses a major information gap concerning the linkage between retaliatory killing for livestock depredation and poaching for trade, and the scale at which both are taking place. The focus is on 12 Snow Leopard range countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. There is little evidence of illegal trade in Snow Leopards outside these countries.
Two sets of data were developed in the research for this report. The first is a Snow Leopard crime database containing records of seizures (legal actions taken by government authorities) and observations (reports of Snow Leopard killing, capture or trade, including market surveys). The database contains records dating back to 1989 (which are discussed in Annex 1), but the analysis focuses on the period since the release of Fading Footprints, the first TRAFFIC report: 2003-June 2016. Seizures are a function of law enforcement effort, effectiveness and publicization, as well as the magnitude of illegal trade, and so observations are an important component of the analysis, particularly for countries where few seizures are made or reported. However, detailed observations are not regularly published, and may be are biased toward countries where there is more effort, so a simple multiple choice survey was designed for Snow Leopard experts. Completed by 42 of them in 2016, and covering all 12 range countries, the survey asked experts for their total number of known cases, case outcomes, and reasons for killing Snow Leopards.
Based on the average number of cases known to experts over the average of nine years spent working in their geographic areas of knowledge, 221-450 Snow Leopards were estimated to have been poached annually since 2008. With the average rate of poaching detection estimated by experts at less than 38%, these numbers could be substantially higher. Of these, 55% are killed in retaliation for livestock depredation, 21% killed for trade and 18% taken by non-targeted methods such as snares. Although retaliatory killing is estimated to account for roughly half of Snow Leopard poaching (55%), experts estimate that there is a 50-50 chance (48%) that a poaching attempt will take place after a depredation incident. On average, experts estimate that 60% of retaliatory and non-targeted poaching incidents result in an attempt to sell; accounting for differences in this estimate between countries, a total of 108-219 Snow Leopards potentially enter into illegal trade. Over 90% of annual Snow Leopard poaching is estimated to occur in five range countries: China (103-236), Mongolia (34-53), Pakistan (23-53), India (21-45) and Tajikistan (20-25).
Given the uncertainties about population numbers, as well as the low rate of poaching detection, it is difficult to assess the impact of this offtake on the viability of the species. Snow Leopard range is used as a proxy for Snow Leopard population numbers; most national Snow Leopard population estimates are derived from extrapolating study site densities across likely range. Although China had by far the highest number of seizures and observations (309 Snow Leopards from 2003-2016) and the highest annual poaching estimate, its share of Snow Leopard crime was not disproportionate to its large share (at least 60%) of Snow Leopard range. Countries flagged for having disproportionate shares of crime levels relative to share of range included Afghanistan and Russia (seizures and observations), and Nepal and Pakistan (annual poaching estimates). China and Russia were most frequently identified as destinations for animals poached in other countries.
The expert survey indicates that the scale of Snow Leopard crime is more serious than apparent from the annual average number of Snow Leopard seized (18) or observed (34) from 2003-2016. This could be in part due to the challenges of law enforcement in the Snow Leopard’s remote montane habitat. Indeed, the survey found that an average of 23% of known cases were investigated by authorities, and only 14% prosecuted.
The minimum number of Snow Leopards in the seizures and observations database fell by 43% from the first half of the analysis period (2003-2009) compared to the second (2010-June 2016) (from 451 to 259). However, the decline was in the number of Snow Leopards observed in trade and in market surveys, which fell by 80% (from 280 to 54), with the largest decline taking place in China. There were more market surveys in the first half of the analysis period (13) than the second (5), but they
TRAFFIC report: An Ounce Of Prevention: Snow Leopard Crime Revisited xi
were repeated in the same places (Kabul, Afghanistan and cities in western China), and far fewer skins were seen (for example, 60 skins in the Chinese city of Linxia in 2007, compared to one in 2011). The numbers of Snow Leopards in other observations were roughly equivalent for the two periods (108 in the first and 100 in the second), but the numbers in trade observations fell by 46% (from 52 to 28). Otherwise, the number of Snow Leopards seized rose by 16% (from 115 to 133), and the number of individual seizure cases rose by 77% (from 44 to 78). The number of poached Snow Leopards seized doubled (from 31 to 60), and the observed number of poached Snow Leopards also increased by 14% (from 56 to 64). The number of Snow Leopards in trade seizures was the same in both periods (55), and the number smuggled roughly equivalent (29 seized in the first period, and 24 seized and observed in the second).
There are three possible interpretations of this situation of rising numbers of Snow Leopards poached (as measured by seizures and observations), steady numbers in smuggling and trade seizures, and steeply declining numbers in trade observations and market surveys. It could be that the limitations of available data and the authors’ inability to collect all of it has resulted in an incorrect picture. It is apparent that illegal trade has become more clandestine and difficult to detect in most countries, so that secondly, it could be increasing, as indicated by the apparent rise in poaching numbers. However, the number of Snow Leopards seized in large cases (more than 3 Snow Leopards per case), indicative of organized trafficking activity, declined from 60 in the 2003-2009 to 23 in 2010-2016. This points to a third possibility: that trade (and perhaps demand) is declining, possibly due to increased enforcement, but local people continue to opportunistically sell Snow Leopards they poached primarily to protect livestock.
With skins being the main Snow Leopard product type in trade (78%), the primary motive for buyers appears to be for display, with some observations of skins hanging on walls in homes and restaurants, as well as stuffed taxidermy specimens. Priced in the thousands of US dollars, skins have been described as a “symbol of wealth and power.” However, there probably exists very little in the way of a definable consumer segment deliberately seeking out such items. They are most likely purchased opportunistically – “impulse buys” – and most consumers probably only buy one in their lifetime. Once in a home, the illegal possession has very low probability of detection, and moreover law enforcement authorities may be reluctant to investigate in such situations. The purchase itself also has a low probability of detection, as indicated by the sharp decline in observed numbers of Snow Leopard skins being offered for sale. While growing personal wealth in Asia has been highlighted as a primary driver of illegal wildlife trade, poverty is also recognized as a driver, and the Snow Leopard trade may be more driven by rural people in Snow Leopard habitat attempting to make money and make up for livestock losses to predators than by wealthy people placing orders for luxury household decorations. Unlike the demand-driven Tiger trade (Annex 2), to which it otherwise bears many similarities, the market for Snow Leopards may be more a function of supply, and actions should focus on the communities living near Snow Leopards to reduce incentives to poach and sell. This notion is reflected in the aphorism behind the title of this report: an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure. Preventing livestock losses, offsetting the costs of losses and improving community support for Snow Leopard conservation are the most important approaches to tackling the problem of Snow Leopard trafficking.
Recommendations focus on addressing the leading cause of Snow Leopard poaching (retaliatory killing/Human-Wildlife Conflict) as well as measures to stem illegal trade, and are primarily targeted at the 12 Snow Leopard range countries. They are aligned with existing recommendations and planned actions, including CITES recommendations, draft Decisions and consultant’s reports around implementation of Resolution Conf. 12.5 (CITES 2015, 2016; Nowell and Pervushina, 2014); the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP, 2013, 2015, n.d.); the SLN’s Snow Leopard Survival Strategy (SLN, 2014); and WWF’s Snow Leopard Species Action Plan (WWF, 2015 and Sharma, 2016). There was also an informal discussion about recommendations to address poaching and illegal trade at the Second China Snow Leopard Forum, held in Urumqi, Xinjiang province 24-26 August 2016 (B. Weckworth, Panthera, pers. comm.).
Recommendations are grouped according to four primary actors in Snow Leopard conservation: 1) governments of Snow Leopard range countries; 2) communities living in Snow Leopard range; 3) conservation organizations and Snow Leopard experts; and 4) donor governments and agencies.
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Li, J., Xiao, L., Lu, Z. (2016). Challenges of snow leopard conservation in China. Science China Life Sciences, 59(6), 637–639.
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Chetri, M., Odden, M., Wegge, P. (2017). Snow Leopard and Himalayan Wolf: Food Habits and Prey Selection in the Central Himalayas, Nepal. Plos, (12(2)), 2–16.
Abstract: Top carnivores play an important role in maintaining energy flow and functioning of the ecosystem,
and a clear understanding of their diets and foraging strategies is essential for
developing effective conservation strategies. In this paper, we compared diets and prey
selection of snow leopards and wolves based on analyses of genotyped scats (snow leopards
n = 182, wolves n = 57), collected within 26 sampling grid cells (5×5 km) that were distributed
across a vast landscape of ca 5000 km2 in the Central Himalayas, Nepal. Within the
grid cells, we sampled prey abundances using the double observer method. We found that
interspecific differences in diet composition and prey selection reflected their respective
habitat preferences, i.e. snow leopards significantly preferred cliff-dwelling wild ungulates
(mainly bharal, 57% of identified material in scat samples), whereas wolves preferred typically
plain-dwellers (Tibetan gazelle, kiang and argali, 31%). Livestock was consumed less
frequently than their proportional availability by both predators (snow leopard = 27%; wolf =
24%), but significant avoidance was only detected among snow leopards. Among livestock
species, snow leopards significantly preferred horses and goats, avoided yaks, and used
sheep as available. We identified factors influencing diet composition using Generalized Linear
Mixed Models. Wolves showed seasonal differences in the occurrence of small mammals/
birds, probably due to the winter hibernation of an important prey, marmots. For snow
leopard, occurrence of both wild ungulates and livestock in scats depended on sex and latitude.
Wild ungulates occurrence increased while livestock decreased from south to north,
probably due to a latitudinal gradient in prey availability. Livestock occurred more frequently
in scats from male snow leopards (males: 47%, females: 21%), and wild ungulates more frequently
in scats from females (males: 48%, females: 70%). The sexual difference agrees
with previous telemetry studies on snow leopards and other large carnivores, and may
reflect a high-risk high-gain strategy among males.
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Murali, R., Lkhagvajav, P., Saeed, U., Kizi, V. A., Nawaz, M. A., Bhatnagar, Y. V., Sharma, K., Mishra, C. (2017). VALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN SNOW LEOPARD LANDSCAPES OF ASIA.
Abstract: Snow leopards occur in Asia�s high mountain ranges of the Himalayas, Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Pamir, Tien Shan, Kunlun, Altai and Sayan. In all the 12 countries where they occur, snow leopards face intensifying threats to their survival, including habitat fragmentation and degradation due to increasing human populations, mining and developmental projects, poaching and illegal wildlife trade, weak law enforcement, inadequate involvement of local people in conservation efforts, and depletion of natural prey populations due to hunting by people and overgrazing by livestock.
To address the urgent needs of conservation of the snow leopard and the sustainable development of mountain peoples, the Governments of snow leopard range countries came together and agreed to invest efforts to conserve snow leopards in 23 large landscapes across its range under the Global Snow Leopard Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP).
These landscapes where the snow leopards occur are inhabited by agro-pastoral and pastoral peoples who depend on well functioning ecosystems for ecosystem services, i.e., the benefits that humans derive from nature. Many threats that impact snow leopards also impact the well-being of people living in these landscapes. However, till date, there have been no studies that have attempted to quantify peoples� dependence on ecosystem services in snow leopard landscapes, or understand the impacts that alternate land-use decisions such as mining or infrastructure can have on the ecosystem services and on the local people who are dependent on them.
In this report, we provide the first assessment of the economic value of provisioning ecosystem services � the material goods from ecosystems � used by local people in five study sites from four GSLEP landscapes: Spiti Valley and Changtang region of Ladakh in India�s Hemis-Spiti Landscape, Gurez Valley in the Himalayan Landscape of Pakistan, Tost Nature Reserve in the South Gobi Landscape of Mongolia, and the Sarychat region in the Central Tien Shan Landscape of Kyrgyzstan. In study sites that had both pastoral and agro-pastoral communities, we estimated ecosystem services separately for the two production systems.The average value (± SE) of ecosystem services per household amongst the agro-pastoral
communities of Gurez Valley (4125 ± 190 USD/HH/yr) was 2.5 times the average local household income. In the agro-pastoral communities of Spiti Valley (3964 ± 334.8 USD/HH/yr) it was 3.6 times the average local household income, while it was 3.7 times amongst the agro-pastoral communities of Changtang (15083 ± 1656 USD/HH/yr). Amongst the pastoral communities, the value of ecosystem services used by households was several times higher than the average household income: it was 26.1 times amongst the pastoral communities of Changtang (79303 ± 9204 USD HH/yr), 38.7 times among communities in Tost Nature Reserve (150100 ± 13290 USD/HH/yr), and 7.4 times among the pastoral communities of Sarychat (25473 ± 5236 USD/HH/yr). It was lower, although still substantial at 0.6 times, for the downstream agro-pastoral communities living outside the landscape boundary in Sarychat (2094 ± 189 USD/HH/yr).
Our work reveals substantially high levels of dependence of local communities on ecosystem services provided by snow leopard landscapes of Asia. The estimated economic value of provisioning ecosystem services used by human households in these landscapes ranged from 0.6 to up to 40 times the local annual household incomes. This economic support that nature provides people is critical for humanity but remains hidden and unaccounted for. Land use change decisions, especially those that are damaging for nature and biodiversity, must start accounting for the value of ecosystem services in their cost-benefit analyses.
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Ghoshal, A. (2017). Snow Leopard Ecology and Conservation Issues in India. Resonance, , 677–690.
Abstract: Snow leopard, an elusive mammal species of the cat family,
is the top-predator of the Central and South Asian, highaltitude
ecosystem. Snow leopards occur at low densities across
the Central Asian mountains and the Indian Himalayan region.
Owing to their secretive nature and inaccessible habitat,
little is known about its ecology and distribution. Due to
its endangered status and high aesthetic value, the snow leopard
is considered as an �umbrella species� for wildlife conservation
in the Indian Himalayas. This article summarizes the
current knowledge on snow leopard ecology and conservation
issues in the Indian context.
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Mei, S., Alexander, J. S., Zhao, X., Cheng, C., Lu, Z. (2018). Common leopard and snow leopard co-existence in Sanjiangyuan,Qinghai, China. Cat News, (67), 18–20.
Abstract: The snow leopard Panthera uncia, classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN, is distributed
across the mountainous areas of 12 countries in South and Central Asia. The common
leopard Panthera pardus, also classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN, has the widest
geographic distribution among all wild cats and inhabits many countries of Africa
and Asia. The common leopard is much bigger than the snow leopard. Sightings of
both species in the same location have recently been reported from the Autonomous
Region of Tibet and Sichuan, China. We conducted a camera trap survey to verify the
presence of these large carnivores using camera traps in Niandu and Yunta villages
of Qinghai province, China. In both areas camera trap stations captured both species,
identifying seven adult snow leopard and four adult common leopard individuals.
Our study provides the first photographic evidence of common leopard presence in
Qinghai province and confirms the co-existence of snow leopards and common leopards
in the Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve. A more detailed study will be
conducted to investigate the distribution and interaction of the two species along
Tongtianhe and Zhaqu rivers, Qinghai province, in order to enhance efforts for their
long-term conservation.
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Shrestha, B., Aihartza, J., Kindlmann. (2018). Diet and prey selection by snow leopards in the Nepalese Himalayas. PLoS ONE, , 1–18.
Abstract: Visual attractiveness and rarity often results in large carnivores being adopted as flagship
species for stimulating conservation awareness. Their hunting behaviour and prey selection
can affect the population dynamics of their prey, which in turn affects the population dynamics
of these large carnivores. Therefore, our understanding of their trophic ecology and foraging
strategies is important for predicting their population dynamics and consequently for
developing effective conservation programs. Here we concentrate on an endangered species
of carnivores, the snow leopard, in the Himalayas. Most previous studies on snow leopard
diet lack information on prey availability and/or did not genetically check, whether the
identification of snow leopard scats is correct, as their scats are similar to those of other
carnivores. We studied the prey of snow leopard in three Himalayan regions in Nepal
(Sagarmatha National Park (SNP), Lower Mustang (LM) and Upper Manang (UM) in the
Annapurna Conservation Area, during winter and summer in 2014�2016. We collected 268
scats along 139.3 km linear transects, of which 122 were genetically confirmed to belong to
snow leopard. Their diet was identified by comparing hairs in scats with our reference collection
of the hairs of potential prey. We determined prey availability using 32�48 camera-traps
and 4,567 trap nights. In the SNP, the most frequent prey in snow leopard faeces was the
Himalayan tahr in both winter and summer. In LM and UM, its main prey was blue sheep in
winter, but yak and goat in summer. In terms of relative biomass consumed, yak was the
main prey everywhere in both seasons. Snow leopard preferred large prey and avoided
small prey in summer but not in winter, with regional differences. It preferred domestic to
wild prey only in winter, and in SNP. Unlike most other studies carried out in the same area,
our study uses genetic methods for identifying the source of the scat. Studies solely based
on visual identification of samples may be strongly biased. Diet studies based on frequency
of occurrence of prey tend to overestimate the importance of small prey, which may be consumed
more often, but contribute less energy than large prey. However, even assessments
based on prey biomass are unlikely to be accurate as we do not know whether the actual
size of the prey consumed corresponds to the average size used to calculate the biomass
eaten. For example, large adults may be too difficult to catch and therefore mostly young animals are consumed, whose weight is much lower. We show that snow leopard consumes
a diverse range of prey, which varies both regionally and seasonally. We conclude that in
order to conserve snow leopards it is also necessary to conserve its main wild species of
prey, which will reduce the incidence of losses of livestock.
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Janjua, S., Peters, J. L., Weckworth, B., Abbas, F. I., Bahn, Volker, Johansson, O., Rooney, T.P. (2019). Improving our conservation genetic toolkit: ddRAD-seq for SNPs in snow leopards. Conservation Genetic Resource, .
Abstract: Snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are an enigmatic, high-altitude species whose challenging habitat, low population densities
and patchy distribution have presented challenges for scientists studying its biology, population structure, and genetics.
Molecular scatology brings a new hope for conservation efforts by providing valuable insights about snow leopards, including
their distribution, population densities, connectivity, habitat use, and population structure for assigning conservation units.
However, traditional amplification of microsatellites from non-invasive sources of DNA are accompanied by significant
genotyping errors due to low DNA yield and poor quality. These errors can lead to incorrect inferences in the number of
individuals and estimates of genetic diversity. Next generation technologies have revolutionized the depth of information
we can get from a species' genome. Here we used double digest restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (ddRAD-seq),
a well-established technique for studying non-model organisms, to develop a reference sequence library for snow leopards
using blood samples from five Mongolian individuals. Our final data set reveals 4504 loci with a median size range of 221 bp.
We identified 697 SNPs and low nucleotide diversity (0.00032) within these loci. However, the probability that two random
individuals will share identical genotypes is about 10-168. We developed probes for DNA capture using this sequence library
which can now be used for genotyping individuals from scat samples. Genetic data from ddRAD-seq will be invaluable for
conducting population and landscape scale studies that can inform snow leopard conservation strategies.
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