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Author Hanson, J. H., Schutgens, M., Lama, R.P., Aryal, A., Dhakal, M.
Title Local attitudes to the proposed translocation of blue sheep Pseudois nayaur to Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal Type Journal Article
Year 2018 Publication Fauna & Flora International Abbreviated Journal
Volume Issue Pages 1-7
Keywords Attitudes, blue sheep, human&wildlife conflict, Panthera uncia, Pseudois nayaur, Sagarmatha National Park, snow leopard, translocation
Abstract Translocations are an important tool for the conservation

of biodiversity, but although ecological feasibility

studies are frequently conducted prior to implementation,

social feasibility studies that consider how local communities

perceive such projects are less common. The translocation

of blue sheep Pseudois nayaur to Sagarmatha National

Park, Nepal, has been proposed, to reduce livestock depredation

by snow leopards Panthera uncia by providing an alternative

prey base in addition to the small population of

Himalayan thar Hemitragus jemlahicus. This study used

systematic sampling, a quantitative questionnaire and qualitative

interviews within the Park to provide data on the social

viability of the proposed translocation. Quantitative

analysis revealed moderate levels of support but qualitative

analysis suggested that there are significant concerns about

the proposal. In addition,multiple regression analysis found

that women and livestock owners were significantly less

supportive, although the model had low explanatory

power. Potential crop damage and competition for forage

were frequently cited as concerns, especially amongst

those with a high level of dependence on natural resources.

Given the mixed response to the proposed translocation of

blue sheep to the Everest region, alleviating the reservations

of local residents is likely to be key to any further consultation,

planning or implementation.
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Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1475
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Author Khanal, G., Poudyal, L. P., Devkota, B. P., Ranabhat, R., Wegge, P.
Title Status and conservation of the snow leopard Panthera uncia in Api Nampa Conservation Area, Nepal Type Journal Article
Year 2018 Publication Fauna & Flora International Abbreviated Journal
Volume Issue Pages 1-8
Keywords Api Nampa Conservation Area, bharal, Nepal, Panthera uncia, Pseudois nayaur, snow leopard
Abstract The snow leopard Panthera uncia is globally

threatened and reliable information on its abundance,

distribution and prey species is a prerequisite for its conservation.

In October-November 2014 we assessed the distribution

of the snow leopard in the recently established Api

Nampa Conservation Area in the Nepal Himalayas.

Within selected blocks we conducted sign surveys and

counted the number of bharal Pseudois nayaur, its principal

wild prey, along transects totalling 106 km.We recorded 203

putative snow leopard signs at an encounter rate of 1.91

signs/km. Generalized linear models of the number of

signs detected per transect showed that elevation had a positive

influence and human activities a negative influence on

sign encounter rate; prey abundance had only a weak positive

influence on sign encounter rate. Within the effectively

surveyed area of c. 2002 km2, we counted 527 bharal at an estimated

density of 2.28 animals/km2. Recruitment of bharal

was low, estimated at 48 kids/100 adult females, most likely a

result of poor or overgrazed rangeland. We estimate

the total number of bharal in this conservation area to be

.>1,000, a prey base that could sustain 6-9 snow leopards.

Based on our field observations, we identified human disturbance

and habitat degradation associated with extraction

of non-timber forest products, livestock grazing, and poaching

as the main threats to the snow leopard. Standardized

sign surveys, preferably supplemented by sampling with

remote cameras or with genetic analysis of scats would

provide robust baseline information on the abundance of

snow leopards in this conservation area.
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Area Expedition Conference
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Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1473
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Author Underwood, R.
Title The snow leopard, and its association with the dawn of wildlife management in India Type Book Chapter
Year 2013 Publication Abbreviated Journal
Volume Issue Pages 1-10
Keywords Snow Leopard,wildlife management,colonial forestry,forest and land management
Abstract As part of a project looking at the history of ‘colonial forestry’ I have been studying forest and land management in India during the period from about 1860 to 1920. The subject is of interest because the forest conservation policies and management practices developed in India at that time later became a template for early forest policies and practices in Australia (where I have worked nearly all of my life as a forester), New Zealand, South Africa and the United States of America.

An unexpected outcome of my research was to find that 19th and early 20th century Indian foresters were also deeply concerned about Indian wildlife, and that in their published writings on this issue can be discerned some of the earliest concepts of professional wildlife management.

The outcome was unexpected because a notable aspect of forestry in India in the 19th century was the widespread love of hunting wild animals, or shikar, amongst officers of the Indian Forest Service. Sometimes this was done in the line of duty, a forester being called out to dispatch a rogue elephant or a man-eating tiger. But hunting was also regarded by many (especially those who had transferred from the Army into the Forest Service) as a sport, a contest between man and beast. And despite his firepower, it was a contest in which 19th century man did not always come out on top.
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Language Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
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Area Expedition Conference
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Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1392
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Author Bohnett, E., Faryabi, S. P., Lewison, R., An, L., Bian, X., Rajabi, A. M., Jahed, N., Rooyesh, H., Mills, E., Ramos, S., Mesnildrey, N., Perez, C. M. S., Taylor, J., Terentyev, V., Ostrowski, S.
Title Human expertise combined with artificial intelligence improves performance of snow leopard camera trap studies Type Journal Article
Year 2023 Publication Global Ecology & Conservation Abbreviated Journal
Volume 41 Issue e02350 Pages 1-13
Keywords Snow leopard, Artificial intelligence, Camera trap misclassification, individual ID, HotSpotter
Abstract Camera trapping is the most widely used data collection method for estimating snow leopard (Panthera uncia) abundance; however, the accuracy of this method is limited by human observer errors from misclassifying individuals in camera trap images. We evaluated the extent Whiskerbook (www.whiskerbook.org), an artificial intelligence (AI) software, could reduce this error rate and enhance the accuracy of capture-recapture abundance estimates. Using 439 images of 34 captive snow leopard individuals, classification was performed by five observers with prior experience in individual snow leopard ID (“experts”) and five observers with no such experience (“novices”). The “expert” observers classified 35 out of 34 snow leopard individuals, on average erroneously splitting one individual into two, thus resulting in a higher number than true individuals. The success rate of experts was 90 %, with less than a 3 % error in estimating the population size in capture-recapture modeling. However, the “novice” observers successfully matched 71 % of encounters, recognizing 25 out of 34 individuals, underestimating the population by 25 %. It was found that expert observers significantly outperformed novice observers, making statistically fewer errors (Mann Whitney U test P = 0.01) and finding the true number of individuals (P = 0.01). These differences were contrasted with a previous study by Johansson et al. 2020, using the same subset of 16 individuals from European zoos. With the help of AI and the Whiskerbook platform, “experts” were able to match 87 % of encounters and identify 15 out of 16 individuals, with modeled estimates of 16 ± 1 individuals. In contrast, “novices” were 63 % accurate in matching encounters and identified 12 out of 16 individuals, modeling 12 ± 1 individuals that underestimated the population size by 12 %. When comparing the performance of observers using AI and the Whiskerbook platform to observers performing the tasks manually, we found that observers using Whiskerbook made significantly fewer errors in splitting one individual into two (P = 0.04). However, there were also a significantly higher number of combination errors, where two individuals were combined into one (P = 0.01). Specifically, combination errors were found to be made by “novices” (P = 0.04). Although AI benefited both expert and novice observers, expert observers outperformed novices. Our results suggest that AI effectively reduced the misclassification of individual snow leopards in camera trap studies, improving abundance estimates. However, even with AI support, expert observers were needed to obtain the most accurate estimates.
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Language Summary Language Original Title
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Area Expedition Conference
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Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1715
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Author Rashid, W., Shi, J., Rahim, I. U., Dong, S., Ahmad, L.
Title Research trends and management options in human-snow leopard conflict Type Journal Article
Year 2020 Publication Biological Conservation Abbreviated Journal
Volume 242 Issue 108413 Pages 1-10
Keywords Snow leopards, Systematic review, Compensation, Co-existence, Livestock, Human-wildlife conflict, Mitigation
Abstract Conservation of the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is challenging because of its threatened status and increase in human-snow leopard conflict (HSC). The area of occupancy of the snow leopard comprises mountainous regions of Asia that are confronted with various environmental pressures including climate change. HSCs have increased with a burgeoning human population and economic activities that enhance competition between human and snow leopard or its preys. Here we systematically review the peer-reviewed literature from 1994 to 2018 in Web of Science, Google Scholar, Science Direct and PubMed (30 articles), to evaluate the current state of scholarship about HSCs and their management. We determine: 1) the spatio-temporal distribution of relevant researches; 2) the methodologies to assess HSCs; 3) and evaluate existing interventions for conflict management; and 4) the potential options for HSC management. The aim of the current study is thus to identify key research gaps and future research requirements. Of the articles in this review, 60% evaluated the mitigation of HSCs, while only 37% provided actionable and decisive results. Compensation programs and livestock management strategies had high success rates for mitigating HSCs through direct or community-managed interventions. Further research is required to evaluate the efficacy of existing HSC mitigation strategies, many of which, while recommended, lack proper support. In spite of the progress made in HSC studies, research is needed to examine ecological and sociocultural context of HSCs. We suggest future work focus on rangeland management for HSC mitigation, thus ultimately fostering a co-existence between human and snow leopard.
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Language Summary Language Original Title
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Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1716
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Author Atzeni, L., Wang, J., Riordan, P., Shi, K., Cushman, S. A.
Title Landscape resistance to gene flow in a snow leopard population from Qilianshan National Park, Gansu, China Type Journal Article
Year 2023 Publication Landscape Ecology Abbreviated Journal
Volume Issue Pages
Keywords Landscape genetics · MLPE · Gene flow · Genetic distance · Isolation by distance · Isolation by resistance · Landscape resistance · Snow leopard · Principal component analysis
Abstract Context: The accurate estimation of landscape resistance to movement is important for ecological understanding and conservation applications. Rigorous estimation of resistance requires validation and optimization. One approach uses genetic data for the optimization or validation of resistance models. Objectives We used a genetic dataset of snow leopards from China to evaluate how landscape genetics resistance models varied across genetic distances and spatial scales of analysis. We evaluated whether landscape genetics models were superior to models of resistance derived from habitat suitability or isolation-by-distance.

Methods: We regressed genetically optimized, habitat-based, and isolation-by-distance hypotheses against genetic distances using mixed effect models. We explored all subset combinations of genetically optimized variables to find the most supported resistance scenario for each genetic distance.

Results: Genetically optimized models always out-performed habitat-based and isolation-by-distance hypotheses. The choice of genetic distances influenced the apparent influence of variables, their spatial scales and their functional response shapes, producing divergent resistance scenarios. Gene flow in snow leopards was largely facilitated by areas of intermediate ruggedness at intermediate elevations corresponding to small-to-large valleys within and between the mountain ranges.

Conclusions: This study highlights that landscape genetics models provide superior estimation of functional dispersal than habitat surrogates and suggests that optimization of genetic distance should be included as an optimization routine in landscape genetics, along with variables, scales, effect size and functional response shape. Furthermore, our study provides new insights on the ecological conditions that promote gene flow in snow leopards, which expands ecological knowledge, and we hope will improve conservation planning.
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Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1720
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Author Bohnett, E., Holmberg, J., Faryabi, S. P., An, L., Ahmad, B., Rashid, W., Ostrowski, S.
Title Comparison of two individual identification algorithms for snow leopards (Panthera uncia) after automated detection Type Journal Article
Year 2023 Publication Ecological Informatics Abbreviated Journal
Volume 77 Issue 102214 Pages 1-14
Keywords Background subtraction, Deep learning, Hotspotter, Individual identification, PIE v2, Snow leopards
Abstract Photo-identification of individual snow leopards (Panthera uncia) is the primary data source for density estimation via capture-recapture statistical methods. To identify individual snow leopards in camera trap imagery, it is necessary to match individuals from a large number of images from multiple cameras and historical catalogues, which is both time-consuming and costly. The camouflaged snow leopards also make it difficult for machine learning to classify photos, as they blend in so well with the surrounding mountain environment, rendering applicable software solutions unavailable for the species. To potentially make snow leopard individual identification available via an artificial intelligence (AI) software interface, we first trained and evaluated image classification techniques for a convolutional neural network, pose invariant embeddings (PIE) (a triplet loss network), and compared the accuracy of PIE to that of the HotSpotter algorithm (a SIFT-based algorithm). Data were acquired from a curated library of free-ranging snow leopards taken in Afghanistan between 2012 and 2019 and from captive animals in zoos in Finland, Sweden, Germany, and the United States. We discovered several flaws in the initial PIE model, such as a small amount of background matching, that was addressed, albeit likely not fixed, using background subtraction (BGS) and left-right mirroring (LR) techniques which demonstrated reasonable accuracy (Rank 1: 74% Rank-5: 92%) comparable to the Hotspotter results (Rank 1: 74% Rank 2: 84%)The PIE BGS LR model, in conjunction with Hotspotter, yielded the following results: Rank-1: 85%, Rank-5: 95%, Rank-20: 99%. In general, our findings indicate that PIE BGS LR, in conjunction with HotSpotter, can classify snow leopards more accurately than using either algorithm alone.
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Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1723
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Author Kichloo, M. A., Sharma, K., Sharma, N.
Title Climate casualties or human disturbance? Shrinking distribution of the three large carnivores in the Greater Himalaya Type Journal Article
Year 2023 Publication Springer – Climatic Change Abbreviated Journal
Volume 176 Issue 118 Pages 1-17
Keywords Snow leopard · Common leopard · Asiatic black bear · Climate change · Multi- season occupancy analysis · Local ecological knowledge · Imperfect detection
Abstract Mammalian carnivores are key to our understanding of ecosystem dynamics, but most of them are threatened with extinction all over the world. Conservating large carnivores is often an arduous task considering the complex relationship between humans and carnivores, and the diverse range and reasons of threats they face. Climate change is exacerbating the situation further by interacting with most existing threats and amplifying their impacts. The Mountains of Central and South Asia are warming twice as rapidly as the rest of the northern hemisphere. There has been limited research on the effect of climate change and other variables on large carnivores. We studied the patterns in spatio-temporal distribution of three sympatric carnivores, common leopard, snow leopard, and Asiatic black bear in Kishtwar high altitude National Park, a protected area in the Great Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir. We investigated the effects of key habitat characteristics as well as human disturbance and climatic factors to understand the spatio-temporal change in their distributions between the early 1990s and around the year 2016–2017. We found a marked contraction in the distribution of the three carnivores between the two time periods. While snow leopard shifted upwards and further away from human settlements, common leopard and Asiatic black bear suffered higher rates of local extinctions at higher altitudes and shifted to lower areas with more vegetation, even if that brought them closer to settlements. We also found some evidence that snow leopards were less likely to have faced range contraction in areas with permanent glaciers. Our study underscores the importance of climate adaptive conservation practices for long-term management in the Greater Himalaya, including the monitoring of changes in habitat, and space-use patterns by human communities and wildlife.
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Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1724
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Author Zhang, C., Ma, T., Ma, D.
Title Status of the snow leopard Panthera uncia in the Qilian Mountains, Gansu Province, China Type Journal Article
Year 2023 Publication Oryx Abbreviated Journal
Volume Issue Pages 1-6
Keywords Camera trapping, China, density, Panthera uncia, Qilian Mountains, snow leopard, spatially explicit capture–recapture
Abstract Population density estimation is integral to the effective conservation and management of wildlife. The snow leopard Panthera uncia is categorized as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and reliable information on its density is a prerequisite for its conservation and management. Little is known about the status of the snow leopard in the central and eastern Qilian Mountains, China. To address this, we estimated the population density of the snow leopard using a spatially explicit capture–recapture model based on camera trapping in Machang in the central and eastern Qilian Mountains during January–March 2019. We set up

40 camera traps and recorded 84 separate snow leopard captures over 3,024 trap-days. We identified 18 individual snow leopards and estimated their density to be 2.26/100 km. Our study provides baseline information on the snow leopard and the first population estimate for the species in the central and eastern Qilian Mountains.
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Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1725
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Author Thapa, K., Rayamajhi, S.
Title Anti-predator strategies of blue sheep (naur) under varied predator compositions: a comparison of snow leopard-inhabited valleys with and without wolves in Nepal Type Journal Article
Year 2023 Publication Wildlife Research Abbreviated Journal
Volume Issue Pages 1-9
Keywords Annapurna conservation area, antipredator behavior, blue sheep (Naur), predation, prey predator traits, snow leopard, trade-off, wolf.
Abstract In Nepal, naur are usually the staple wild prey for the snow leopard, a solitary stalker hunter, and in some cases, for the wolf who hunts in a pack. We assumed that naur would adapt their anti-predatory responses to the presence of chasing and ambushing predators in the Manang Valley, where there are snow leopards and wolves, and in the Nar Phu valley, an area where there is only the snow leopard.

Aims. The aim of this study was to determine if there were differences in anti-predator strategies (vigilance, habitat selection and escape terrain) of naur in two valleys over two seasons, spring and autumn.

Methods. In spring 2019, we conducted a reconnaissance survey on the status of the naur and its habitat in the Manang and Nar Phu valleys of the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal. In spring and autumn 2020 and 2021, we observed 360 focal naur individuals (180 individuals in each valley), using the vigilance behaviour methodology to examine the behaviour of the naur.

Key results. There was little difference in the size of the naur groups between the Manang and Nar Phu valleys. The naur were twice as vigilant in Manang (15%), where there are snow leopards and wolves, as they were in Nar Phu (9%), with only snow leopards. The distance from the naur to escape cover was significantly shorter in Manang than in Nar Phu valley. Naur used significantly more rolling terrain in Nar Phu than in Manang. Conclusions. The return of wolves to the Manang valley may have resulted in an increase in the level of naur vigilance. Most likely, the wolves in Manang have already had an effect on the female-to-young-ratio, and this effect will possibly have important consequences for the naur population, as well as at the ecosystem level in the future. Other key determining factors, such as the climate crisis and changes in local resources, could have a significant impact on the naur population, indicating the need for more research. Implications. The findings of this study would provide valuable baseline information for the design of a science-based conservation strategy for conservation managers and scientists on naur, snow leopards and wolves.
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Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1732
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