Abstract: Community-based conservation efforts represent an important approach to facilitate the coexistence of people and wildlife. A concern, however, is that these efforts build on existing community structures and social norms, which are commonly dominated by men. Some biodiversity conservation approaches may consequently neglect women’s voices and deepen existing inequalities and inequities. This paper presents two community case studies that draw upon the knowledge and experience gained in our snow leopard conservation practice in pastoral and agro-pastoral settings in Mongolia and India to better understand women’s roles and responsibilities. In these settings, roles and responsibilities in livestock management and agriculture are strongly differentiated along gender lines, and significant gaps remain in women’s decision-making power about natural resources at the community level. We argue that context-specific and gender-responsive approaches are needed to build community support for conservation actions and leverage women’s potential contributions to conservation outcomes.

Abstract: Polar bears (Ursus maritimus), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) and snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are elusive large carnivores inhabiting snow-covered and remote areas. Their effective conservation and management are challenged by inadequate population information, necessitating development of novel data collection methods. Environmental DNA (eDNA) from snow tracks (footprints in snow) has identified species based on mitochondrial DNA, yet its utility for individual-based analyses remains unsolved due to challenges accessing the nuclear genome. We present a protocol for capturing nuclear eDNA from polar bear, Eurasian lynx and snow leopard snow tracks and verify it through genotyping at a selection of microsatellite markers. We successfully retrieved nuclear eDNA from 87.5% (21/24) of wild polar bear snow tracks, 59.1% (26/44) of wild Eurasian lynx snow tracks, and the single snow leopard sampled. We genotyped over half of all wild polar bear samples (54.2%, 13/24) at five loci, and 11% (9/44) of wild lynx samples and the snow leopard at three loci. Genotyping success from Eurasian lynx snow tracks increased to 24% when tracks were collected by trained rather than untrained personnel. Thirteen wild polar bear samples comprised 11 unique genotypes and two identical genotypes; likely representing 12 individual bears, one of which was sampled twice. Snow tracks show promise for use alongside other non-invasive and conventional methods as a reliable source of nuclear DNA for genetic mark-recapture of elusive and threatened mammals. The detailed protocol we present has utility for broadening end user groups and engaging Indigenous and local communities in species monitoring.

Abstract: Snow leopards inhabit the cold, arid environments of the high
mountains of South and Central Asia. These living conditions likely
affect the abundance and composition of microbes with the capacity to
infect these animals. It is important to investigate the microbes that
snow leopards are exposed to detect infectious disease threats and
define a baseline for future changes that may impact the health of this
endangered felid. In this work, next-generation sequencing is used to
investigate the fecal (and in a few cases serum) virome of seven snow
leopards from the Tost Mountains of Mongolia. The viral species to which
the greatest number of sequences reads showed high similarity was
rotavirus. Excluding one animal with overall very few sequence reads,
four of six animals (67%) displayed evidence of rotavirus infection. A
serum sample of a male and a rectal swab of a female snow leopard
produced sequence reads identical or closely similar to felid
herpesvirus 1, providing the first evidence that this virus infects snow
leopards. In addition, the rectal swab from the same female also
displayed sequence reads most similar to feline papillomavirus 2, which
is the first evidence for this virus infecting snow leopards. The rectal
swabs from all animals also showed evidence for the presence of small
circular DNA viruses, predominantly Circular Rep-Encoding
Single-Stranded (CRESS) DNA viruses and in one case feline anellovirus.
Several of the viruses implicated in the present study could affect the
health of snow leopards. In animals which are under environmental
stress, for example, young dispersing individuals and lactating females,
health issues may be exacerbated by latent virus infections.

Abstract: Theory predicts that small populations may be driven to extinction by random fluctuations in demography and loss of genetic diversity through drift. However, population size is a poor predictor of extinction in large carnivores inhabiting protected areas. Conflict with people on reserve borders is the major cause of mortality in such populations, so that border areas represent population sinks. The species most likely to disappear from small reserves are those that range widely-and are therefore most exposed to threats on reserve borders-irrespective of population size. Conservation efforts that combat only stochastic processes are therefore unlikely to avert extinction.