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Xiao, C., Bai, D., Lambert, J. P., Li, Y., Cering, L., Gong, Z., Riordan, P., Shi, K. (2022). How Snow Leopards Share the Same Landscape with Tibetan Agro-pastoral Communities in the Chinese Himalayas. Journal of Resources and Ecology, 13(3), 483–500.
Abstract: The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) inhabits a human-altered alpine landscape and is often tolerated by residents in regions where the dominant religion is Tibetan Buddhism, including in Qomolangma NNR on the northern side of the Chinese Himalayas. Despite these positive attitudes, many decades of rapid economic development and population growth can cause increasing disturbance to the snow leopards, altering their habitat use patterns and ultimately impacting their conservation. We adopted a dynamic landscape ecology perspective and used multi-scale technique and occupancy model to better understand snow leopard habitat use and coexistence with humans in an 825 km2 communal landscape. We ranked eight hypothetical models containing potential natural and anthropogenic drivers of habitat use and compared them between summer and winter seasons within a year. HABITAT was the optimal model in winter, whereas ANTHROPOGENIC INFLUENCE was the top ranking in summer (AICcw≤2). Overall, model performance was better in the winter than in the summer, suggesting that perhaps some latent summer covariates were not measured. Among the individual variables, terrain ruggedness strongly affected snow leopard habitat use in the winter, but not in the summer. Univariate modeling suggested snow leopards prefer to use rugged land in winter with a broad scale (4000 m focal radius) but with a lesser scale in summer (30 m); Snow leopards preferred habitat with a slope of 22° at a scale of 1000 m throughout both seasons, which is possibly correlated with prey occurrence. Furthermore, all covariates mentioned above showed inextricable ties with human activities (presence of settlements and grazing intensity). Our findings show that multiple sources of anthropogenic activity have complex connections with snow leopard habitat use, even under low human density when anthropogenic activities are sparsely distributed across a vast landscape. This study is also valuable for habitat use research in the future, especially regarding covariate selection for finite sample sizes in inaccessible terrain.
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Changxi, X., Bai, D., Lambert, J. P., Li, Y., Cering, L., Gong, Z., Riordan, P., Shi, K. (2022). How Snow Leopards Share the Same Landscape with Tibetan Agro-pastoral Communities in the Chinese Himalayas. Journal of Resources and Ecology, 13(3), 483–500.
Abstract: The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) inhabits a human-altered alpine landscape and is often tolerated by residents in regions where the dominant religion is Tibetan Buddhism, including in Qomolangma NNR on the northern side of the Chinese Himalayas. Despite these positive attitudes, many decades of rapid economic development and population growth can cause increasing disturbance to the snow leopards, altering their habitat use patterns and ultimately impacting their conservation. We adopted a dynamic landscape ecology perspective and used multi-scale technique and occupancy model to better understand snow leopard habitat use and coexistence with humans in an 825 km2 communal landscape. We ranked eight hypothetical models containing potential natural and anthropogenic drivers of habitat use and compared them between summer and winter seasons within a year. HABITAT was the optimal model in winter, whereas ANTHROPOGENIC INFLUENCE was the top ranking in summer (AICcw≤2). Overall, model performance was better in the winter than in the summer, suggesting that perhaps some latent summer covariates were not measured. Among the individual variables, terrain ruggedness strongly affected snow leopard habitat use in the winter, but not in the summer. Univariate modeling suggested snow leopards prefer to use rugged land in winter with a broad scale (4000 m focal radius) but with a lesser scale in summer (30 m); Snow leopards preferred habitat with a slope of 22° at a scale of 1000 m throughout both seasons, which is possibly correlated with prey occurrence. Furthermore, all covariates mentioned above showed inextricable ties with human activities (presence of settlements and grazing intensity). Our findings show that multiple sources of anthropogenic activity have complex connections with snow leopard habitat use, even under low human density when anthropogenic activities are sparsely distributed across a vast landscape. This study is also valuable for habitat use research in the future, especially regarding covariate selection for finite sample sizes in inaccessible terrain.
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Houston Zoological Society. (1979). Houston's summer snow.
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Hanson, J. H. Household Conflicts with Snow Leopard Conservation and Impacts from Snow Leopards in the Everest and Annapurna Regions of Nepal. Environmental Management, , 1 of 12.
Abstract: Impacts on households from large carnivores are frequently reported in the conservation literature, but conflicts between households and large carnivore conservation are not. Employing a human-wildlife coexistence framework that distinguishes between human-wildlife impacts on one hand, and human-conservation conflicts on the other, this paper presents data from Annapurna Conservation Area and Sagarmatha (Everest) National Park, Nepal, each with different models of conservation governance. Using systematic sampling, quantitative information from 705 households was collected via questionnaires, while 70 semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants for cross-methods triangulation. 7.7% of households reported conflicts with snow leopard conservation in the previous 12 months, primarily due to damage to livelihoods; these were significantly higher in the Annapurna region. 373 livestock were reported lost by households to snow leopards in the previous 12 months, representing 3.4% of total livestock owned and US$ 132,450 in financial value. Livestock losses were significantly lower in the Everest area. In linear regression models, total household livestock losses to all sources best explained conflicts with snow leopard conservation and household livestock losses to snow leopards but the models for the former dependent variable had very low explanatory power. Conservation in general, and large carnivore conservation in particular, should distinguish carefully between impacts caused by coexistence with these species and conflicts with conservation actors and over the methods and interventions used to conserve carnivores, especially where these negatively impact local livelihoods. In addition, livestock husbandry standards are highlighted again as an important factor in the success of carnivore conservation programmes.
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Sultan, H., Rashid, W., Shi, J., Rahim, I. U., Nafees, M., Bohnett, E., Rashid, S., Khan, M. T., Shah, I. A., Han, H., Ariza-Montes, A. (2022). Horizon Scan of Transboundary Concerns Impacting Snow Leopard Landscapes in Asia. Land, 11(248), 1–22.
Abstract: The high-altitude region of Asia is prone to natural resource degradation caused by a variety of natural and anthropogenic factors that also threaten the habitat of critical top predator species, the snow leopard (Panthera uncia). The snow leopard’s landscape encompasses parts of the twelve Asian countries and is dominated by pastoral societies within arid mountainous terrain. However, no investigation has assessed the vulnerability and pathways towards long-term sustainability on the global snow leopard landscape scale. Thus, the current study reviewed 123 peer-reviewed scientific publications on the existing knowledge, identified gaps, and proposed sustainable mitigation options for the longer term and on larger landscape levels in the range countries. The natural resource degradation in this region is caused by various social, economic, and ecological threats that negatively affect its biodiversity. The factors that make the snow leopard landscapes vulnerable include habitat fragmentation through border fencing, trade corridor infrastructure, non-uniform conservation policies, human–snow leopard conflict, the increasing human population, climatic change, land use and cover changes, and unsustainable tourism. Thus, conservation of the integrated Socio-Ecological System (SES) prevailing in this region requires a multi-pronged approach. This paper proposes solutions and identifies the pathways through which to implement these solutions. The prerequisite to implementing such solutions is the adoption of cross-border collaboration (regional cooperation), the creation of peace parks, readiness to integrate transnational and cross-sectoral conservation policies, a focus on improving livestock management practices, a preparedness to control human population growth, a readiness to mitigate climate change, initiating transboundary landscape-level habitat conservation, adopting environment-friendly trade corridors, and promoting sustainable tourism. Sustainable development in this region encompasses the political, social, economic, and ecological landscapes across the borders.
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Jackson, R. M. (1996). Home Range, Movements and Habitat use of Snow Leopard (Uncia uncia) in Nepal. Ph.D. thesis, University of London, University of London.
Abstract: Home ranges for five radio-tagged snow leopards (Uncia uncia) inhabiting prime habitat in Nepal Himalaya varied in size from 11-37 km2. These solitary felids were crepuscular in activity, and although highly mobile, nearly 90% of all consecutive day movements involved a straight line distance of 2km or less. No seasonal difference in daily movement or home range boundry was detected. While home ranges overlapped substancially, use of common core spaces was temporally seperated, with tagged animals being located 1.9 km or more apart during the smae day. Spatial analysis indicated that 47-55% of use occured within only 6-15% of total home area. The snow leopards shared a common core use area, which was located at a major stream confuence in an area where topography, habitat and prey abundance appeared to be more favorable. A young female used her core area least, a female with two cubs to the greatest extent. the core area was marked significantly more with scrapes, Faeces and other sighn than non-core sites, suggesting that social marking plays an important role in spacing individuals. Snow leopards showed a strong preference for bedding in steep, rocky or broken terrain, on or close to a natural vegetation or landform edge. linear landform features, such as a cliff or major ridgeline, were preferred for travelling and day time resting. This behavior would tend to place a snow leopard close to its preferred prey, blue sheep (Psuedois nayaur), which uses the same habitat at night. Marking was concetrated along commonly travelled routes, particularly river bluffs, cliff ledges and well defined ridgelines bordering stream confluences--features that were most abundant within the core area. Such marking may facilitate mutual avoidance, help maintain the species' solitary social structure, and also enable a relatively high density of snow leopard, especially within high-quality habitat.
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Aromov B. (2004). Hissar state nature reserve.
Abstract: Presented is history of the Hissar nature reserve's establishment, physic and geographic description, types of soils, flora and fauna The 28 species of mammals, 103 nested birds, 19 amphibians and reptiles and 2 fishes are presented in nature reserve. Number of snow leopard assessed as 2-3 families, bear 130 individuals, wild boar 460, Turkestan lynx 90,ibex 1700 individuals.
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Jackson, R., & Ahlborn, G. (1986). Himalayan snow leopard project: final progress report, phase 1.
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Thapa, K., Pradhan, N, M, B., Barker, J., Dhakal, M., Bhandari, A, R., Gurung, G, S., Rai, D, P., Thapa, G, J., Shrestha, S., Singh, G, R. (2013). High elevation record of a leopard cat in the Kangchenjunga Conservation Area, Nepal. Cat News, (No 58), 26–27.
Abstract: During a camera trapping survey in Khambachen valley of Kangchenjunga Conservation
Area KCA from 24 April to 26 May 2012 we camera trapped one leopard cat
Prionailurus bengalensis at an altitude of 4,474 meter. This is probably the highest
altitudinal record for the species in its range. Additionally, one melanistic leopard
Panthera pardus was captured at an altitude of 4,300 m, which is probably as well the
highest documented record in the country. Yet at this stage, no obvious reason can
explain these unusual high records for both species, thus more surveys are recommended
for this region.
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Xuedong, X., Jackson, R., & Zongyi, W. (1994). Herd characteristics and habitat use of a blue sheep population in the Qomolangma Nature Preserve. In J.L.Fox, & D.Jizeng (Eds.), (pp. 97–104). Usa: Islt.
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