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Kohli, K., Sankaran, M., Suryawanshi, K. R., Mishra, C. (2014). A penny saved is a penny earned: lean season foraging strategy of an alpine ungulate. Animal Behaviour, (92), 93–100.
Abstract: Lean season foraging strategies are critical for the survival of species inhabiting highly seasonal environments
such as alpine regions. However, inferring foraging strategies is often difficult because of
challenges associated with empirically estimating energetic costs and gains of foraging in the field. We
generated qualitative predictions for the relationship between daily winter foraging time, body size and
forage availability for three contrasting foraging strategies including time minimization, energy intake
maximization and net energy maximization. Our model predicts that for animals employing a time
minimization strategy, daily winter foraging time should not change with body size and should increase
with a reduction in forage availability. For energy intake maximization, foraging time should not vary
with either body size or forage availability. In contrast, for a net energy maximization strategy, foraging
time should decrease with increase in body size and with a reduction in forage availability. We contrasted
proportion of daily time spent foraging by bharal, Pseudois nayaur, a dimorphic grazer, across
different body size classes in two high-altitude sites differing in forage availability. Our results indicate
that bharal behave as net energy maximizers during winter. As predicted by the net energy maximization
strategy, daily winter foraging time of bharal declined with increasing body size, and was lower in the
site with low forage availability. Furthermore, as predicted by our model, foraging time declined as the
winter season progressed. We did not find support for the time minimizing or energy intake maximizing
strategies. Our qualitative model uses relative rather than absolute costs and gains of foraging which are
often difficult to estimate in the field. It thus offers a simple way to make informed inferences regarding
animal foraging strategies by contrasting estimates of daily foraging time across gradients of body size
and forage availability.
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Li, J., Lu, Z. (2014). Snow Leopard poaching and trade in China 2000-2013. Biological Conservation, (176), 207–211.
Abstract: The snow leopard is a flagship species of the alpine ecosystem in the Central Asia, with China comprising
nearly 60% of the habitat and population. It was listed as endangered by IUCN and included in Appendix I
of CITES in the 1970s. Poaching for its fur and bones is a significant and increasing threat to snow leopards
globally. However, little detailed information is available on snow leopard poaching in China. Here,
we collected all reported cases of snow leopard poaching and trade in China 2000–2013. We found that
snow leopard parts were mainly traded in the major cities within their range provinces, but also began to
emerge in a few coastal cities after 2010. Household interviews in the Sanjiangyuan Region in Qinghai
Province showed that in this sub region alone, 11 snow leopards were killed annually, accounting for
about 1.2% of the estimated snow leopard population there.
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Li, J., Lu, Z. (2014). Snow Leopard poaching and trade in China 2000-2013. Biological Conservation, (176), 207–211.
Abstract: The snow leopard is a flagship species of the alpine ecosystem in the Central Asia, with China comprising
nearly 60% of the habitat and population. It was listed as endangered by IUCN and included in Appendix I
of CITES in the 1970s. Poaching for its fur and bones is a significant and increasing threat to snow leopards
globally. However, little detailed information is available on snow leopard poaching in China. Here,
we collected all reported cases of snow leopard poaching and trade in China 2000–2013. We found that
snow leopard parts were mainly traded in the major cities within their range provinces, but also began to
emerge in a few coastal cities after 2010. Household interviews in the Sanjiangyuan Region in Qinghai
Province showed that in this sub region alone, 11 snow leopards were killed annually, accounting for
about 1.2% of the estimated snow leopard population there.
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Li, J., Lu, Z. (2014). Snow Leopard poaching and trade in China 2000- 2013. Biological Conservation, (176), 207–211.
Abstract: The snow leopard is a flagship species of the alpine ecosystem in the Central Asia, with China comprising
nearly 60% of the habitat and population. It was listed as endangered by IUCN and included in Appendix I
of CITES in the 1970s. Poaching for its fur and bones is a significant and increasing threat to snow leopards
globally. However, little detailed information is available on snow leopard poaching in China. Here,
we collected all reported cases of snow leopard poaching and trade in China 2000–2013. We found that
snow leopard parts were mainly traded in the major cities within their range provinces, but also began to
emerge in a few coastal cities after 2010. Household interviews in the Sanjiangyuan Region in Qinghai
Province showed that in this sub region alone, 11 snow leopards were killed annually, accounting for
about 1.2% of the estimated snow leopard population there.
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test. (2014). test.
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Li, J., Lu, Z. (2014). Snow Leopard Poaching and Trade in China 2000-2013. Biological Conservation, (176), 207–211.
Abstract: The snow leopard is a flagship species of the alpine ecosystem in the Central Asia, with China comprising
nearly 60% of the habitat and population. It was listed as endangered by IUCN and included in Appendix I
of CITES in the 1970s. Poaching for its fur and bones is a significant and increasing threat to snow leopards
globally. However, little detailed information is available on snow leopard poaching in China. Here,
we collected all reported cases of snow leopard poaching and trade in China 2000–2013. We found that
snow leopard parts were mainly traded in the major cities within their range provinces, but also began to
emerge in a few coastal cities after 2010. Household interviews in the Sanjiangyuan Region in Qinghai
Province showed that in this sub region alone, 11 snow leopards were killed annually, accounting for
about 1.2% of the estimated snow leopard population there.
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Sharma, K., Bayrakcismith, R., Tumursukh, L., Johansson, O., Sevger, P., McCarthy, T., Mishra, C. (2014). Vigorous Dynamics Underlie a Stable Population of the Endangered Snow Leopard Panthera uncia in Tost Mountains, South Gobi, Mongolia. Plos One, 9(7).
Abstract: Population monitoring programmes and estimation of vital rates are key to understanding the mechanisms of population growth, decline or stability, and are important for effective conservation action. We report, for the first time, the population trends and vital rates of the endangered snow leopard based on camera trapping over four years in the Tost Mountains, South Gobi, Mongolia. We used robust design multi-season mark-recapture analysis to estimate the trends in abundance, sex ratio, survival probability and the probability of temporary emigration and immigration for adult and young snow leopards. The snow leopard population remained constant over most of the study period, with no apparent growth (l = 1.08+20.25). Comparison of model results with the ‘‘known population’’ of radio-collared snow leopards suggested
high accuracy in our estimates. Although seemingly stable, vigorous underlying dynamics were evident in this population, with the adult sex ratio shifting from being male-biased to female-biased (1.67 to 0.38 males per female) during the study. Adult survival probability was 0.82 (SE+20.08) and that of young was 0.83 (SE+20.15) and 0.77 (SE +20.2) respectively, before and after the age of 2 years. Young snow leopards showed a high probability of temporary emigration and immigration (0.6, SE +20.19 and 0.68, SE +20.32 before and after the age of 2 years) though not the adults (0.02 SE+20.07). While the current female-bias in the population and the number of cubs born each year seemingly render the study population safe, the vigorous dynamics suggests that the situation can change quickly. The reduction in the proportion of
male snow leopards may be indicative of continuing anthropogenic pressures. Our work reiterates the importance of monitoring both the abundance and population dynamics of species for effective conservation.
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Suryawanshi, K. R., Bhatia, S., Bhatnagar, Y. V., Redpath, S., Mishra, C. (2014). Multiscale Factors Affecting Human Attitudes toward Snow Leopards and Wolves. Conservation biology, 00, 1–10.
Abstract: The threat posed by large carnivores to livestock and humans makes peaceful coexistence between
them difficult. Effective implementation of conservation laws and policies depends on the attitudes of local
residents toward the target species. There are many known correlates of human attitudes toward carnivores,
but they have only been assessed at the scale of the individual. Because human societies are organized hierarchically, attitudes are presumably influenced by different factors at different scales of social organization, but this scale dependence has not been examined.We used structured interview surveys to quantitatively assess the attitudes of a Buddhist pastoral community toward snow leopards (Panthera uncia) and wolves (Canis lupus).
We interviewed 381 individuals from 24 villages within 6 study sites across the high-elevation Spiti Valley in
the Indian Trans-Himalaya. We gathered information on key explanatory variables that together captured
variation in individual and village-level socioeconomic factors.We used hierarchical linear models to examine how the effect of these factors on human attitudes changed with the scale of analysis from the individual to the community. Factors significant at the individual level were gender, education, and age of the respondent (for wolves and snow leopards), number of income sources in the family (wolves), agricultural production, and large-bodied livestock holdings (snow leopards). At the community level, the significant factors included the number of smaller-bodied herded livestock killed by wolves and mean agricultural production (wolves) and village size and large livestock holdings (snow leopards). Our results show that scaling up from the individual to higher levels of social organization can highlight important factors that influence attitudes of people toward wildlife and toward formal conservation efforts in general. Such scale-specific information can help managers apply conservation measures at appropriate scales. Our results reiterate the need for conflict management programs to be multipronged.
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Khan, B., Ablimit, A., Nawaz, M. A., Ali, R., Khan, M. Z., Jaffaruddin, Karim, R. (2014). Pastoralist experience and tolerance of snow leopard, wolf and lynx predation in Karakoram Pamir Mountains. Journal of Biodiversity and Envirnomental Sciences, 5(4), 214–229.
Abstract: Human-carnivore conflict is a common conservation and livelihood issue in mountain communities. This study was conducted to understand nature and extent of socio-ecological interaction between pastoralism and wildlife conservation in cold deserts of Karakoram Pamir Mountains (KPM) between China and Pakistan. Study revealed that livestock depredation is a burning issue in KPM with varying intensity from place to place, depending upon wild prey abundance, herd size, herding practices, predator type and age. Snow leopard, wolf and lynx were the major predators, while Brown bear despite its presence was reported being less fatal to livestock. Snow leopard killed highest number of animals (88.7% n=1440) mostly sheep and goats whereas, wolf killed more juvenile yaks. Lynx was found occasionally predating on young domestic crop. Highest number of kills was recorded from pastures during summer months (July-Aug) when animals were free grazing or were kept inside pens at night. Wild prey base being abysmally low, livestock seemed offering a considerable portion of diet to carnivores. Despite considerable losses from carnivores, more respondents in KNP (Pakistan) buffer zone had sympathies for predators compared to those in TNR (China) who were annoyed of the carnivores. Although people attributed escalating human-carnivore conflict to a higher level of protection to wild animals in Protected Areas (PA) but efforts are still needed to judiciously integrate conservation with local livelihood and development needs, otherwise herders may continue losing their livestock to predators and retaliatory killing of endangered carnivore species i.e., Snow leopard and Wolf may continue unabated and would further destabilize the fragile mountain ecosystem.
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Johansson, O., McCarthy, T., Samelius, G., Andren, H., Tumursukh, L., Mishra, C. (2015). Snow leopard predation in a livestock dominated landscape in Mongolia. Biological Conservation, 184, 251–258.
Abstract: Livestock predation is an important cause of endangerment of the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) across
its range. Yet, detailed information on individual and spatio-temporal variation in predation patterns of
snow leopards and their kill rates of livestock and wild ungulates are lacking.
We collared 19 snow leopards in the Tost Mountains, Mongolia, and searched clusters of GPS positions
to identify prey remains and estimate kill rate and prey choice.
Snow leopards killed, on average, one ungulate every 8 days, which included more wild prey (73%) than
livestock (27%), despite livestock abundance being at least one order of magnitude higher. Predation on
herded livestock occurred mainly on stragglers and in rugged areas where animals are out of sight of herders.
The two wild ungulates, ibex (Capra ibex) and argali (Ovis ammon), were killed in proportion to their
relative abundance. Predation patterns changed with spatial (wild ungulates) and seasonal (livestock)
changes in prey abundance. Adult male snow leopards killed larger prey and 2–6 times more livestock
compared to females and young males. Kill rates were considerably higher than previous scat-based estimates, and kill rates of females were higher than kill rates of males. We suggest that (i) snow leopards
prey largely on wild ungulates and kill livestock opportunistically, (ii) retaliatory killing by livestock herders
is likely to cause greater mortality of adult male snow leopards compared to females and young
males, and (iii) total off-take of prey by a snow leopard population is likely to be much higher than previous
estimates suggest.
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