Abstract: Anecdotal description of wildlife field studies in the Himalaya, including information on snow leopard natural history and an encounter with snow leopards in Pakistan.

Abstract: Full Text: In 1991, Dr Andrzej Kruszewicz of the Institute of Ecology of the Polish Academy of Sciences saw a “quite fresh” snow leopard skin on sale by a Russian in a Warsaw market for three million Polish zlotys ($300). A few weeks later he saw another skin in a shop in the centre of Warsaw. In spring 1992, Marcin Waslawski from the Institute of Geography saw a snow leopard skin in the same market for the equivalent of $200. The seller was an Asian from a former Soviet Republic. In summer 1992, Wajrak himself saw a snow leopard skin in a hunters' shop in Warsaw and in winter saw one in the home of a Polish hunter, who said it was a gift from a Mongolian friend. In winter 1994, a student from Britain saw a Polish long coat of snow leopard skins in Bialowieza. Wajrak saw a skin in a Warsaw shop, which the owner said was 15-20 years old; he got it from a Polish diplomat who had been in Mongolia and had three snow leopard skins. The skin was priced at the equivalent of $1,000. Wajrak added that he had been told that it was possible to buy tiger skins from Russians in Poland and he was trying to find one; I have not heard from him since.

Abstract: In the 1960s, the endangered snow leopard was locally extirpated from the Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) region of Nepal. In this Sherpa-inhabited high Himalaya, the flourishing tourism since the ascent of Mt Everest in 1953, has caused both prosperity and adverse impacts, the concern that catalyzed the establishment of Mt. Everest National Park in the region in 1976. In the late 1980s, there were reports that some transient snow leopards may have visited the area from adjoining Tibet, but no biological surveys exist to confirm the status of the cats and their prey. Have snow leopards finally returned to the top of the world? Exploring this question was the main purpose of this research project. We systematically walked altogether 24 sign transects covering over 13 km in length in three valleys, i.e. Namche, Phortse and Gokyo, of the park, and counted several snow leopard signs. The results indicated that snow leopards have made a comeback in the park in response to decades of protective measures, the virtual cessation of hunting and the recovery of the Himalayan tahr which is snow leopard's prey. The average sign density (4.2 signs/km and 2.5 sign sites/km) was comparable to that reported from other parts of the cats' range in the Himalaya. On this basis, we estimated the cat density in the Everest region between 1 to 3 cats per 100 sq km, a figure that was supported by different sets of pugmarks and actual sightings of snow leopards in the 60 km2 sample survey area. In the study area, tahr population had a low reproductive rate (e.g. kids-to-females ratio, 0.1, in Namche). Since predators can influence the size and the structure of prey species populations through mortality and through non-lethal effects or predation risk, snow leopards could have been the cause of the population dynamics of tahr in Sagarmtha, but this study could not confirm this speculation for which further probing may be required.

Abstract: The author reports the status of the captive population of snow leopards over the last three decades. Genetic and demographic information is also provided. The captive population as of 1992 was 541 leopards. klf. I