Abstract: The Wakhan Corridor in northeast Afghanistan is an area known for relatively abundant wildlife and it appears to represent Afghanistan’s most important snow leopard landscape. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has been working in Wakhan since 2006. Recent camera trap surveys have documented the presence of snow leopards at 16 different locations in the landscape. These are the first camera trap records of snow leopards in Afghanistan. Threats to snow leopards in the region include the fur trade, retaliatory killing by shepherds and the capture of live animals for pets. WCS is developing an integrated management approach for this species, involving local governance, protection by a cadre of rangers, education, construction of predator-proof livestock corrals, a livestock insurance program, tourism and research activities. This management approach is expected to contribute significantly to the conservation of snow leopards and other wildlife species in the Wakhan.

Abstract: In this study, we investigated the impact of domestic and wild prey availability on snow leopard prey preference in the Kangchenjunga Conservation Area of eastern Nepal-a region where small domestic livestock are absent and small wild ungulate prey are present. We took a comprehensive approach that combined fecal genetic sampling, macro- and microscopic analyses of snow leopard diets, and direct observation of blue sheep and livestock in the KCA. Out of the collected 88 putative snow leopard scat samples from 140 transects (290km) in 27 (4x4km2) sampling grid cells, 73 (83%) were confirmed to be from snow leopard. The genetic analysis accounted for 19 individual snow leopards (10 males and 9 females), with a mean population size estimate of 24 (95% CI: 19-29) and an average density of 3.9 snow leopards/100km2 within 609km2. The total available prey biomass of blue sheep and yak was estimated at 355,236 kg (505 kg yak/km2 and 78kg blue sheep/km2). From the available prey biomass, we estimated snow leopards consumed 7% annually, which comprised wild prey (49%), domestic livestock (45%). and 6% unidentified items. the estimated 47,736 kg blue sheep biomass gives a snow leopard-to-blue sheep ratio of 1:59 on a weight basis. The high preference of snow leopard to domestic livestock appears to be influenced by a much smaller available biomass of wild prey then in other regions of Nepal (e.g., 78kg/km2 in the KCA compared with a range of 200-300 kg/km2 in other regions of Nepal?. Along with livestock insurance scheme improvement, there needs to be a focus on improved livestock guarding, predator-proof corrals as well as engaging and educating local people to be citizen scientists on the importance of snow leopard conservation, involving them in long-term monitoring programs and promotion of ecotourism.

Abstract: There is an increasing emphasis in conservation strategies for large carnivores on facilitating their coexistence with humans. Justification for coexistence strategies should be based on a quantitative assessment of currently remaining large carnivores in human-dominated landscapes. An essential part of a carnivore’s coexistence strategy has to rely on its prey. In this research, we studied snow leopards Panthera uncia whose habitat mainly comprises human-dominated, unprotected areas, to understand how a large carnivore and its primary prey, the bharal Pseudois nayaur, could coexist with human land use activities in a large proportion of its range. Using a combination of livestock census, camera trapping and wildlife surveys, across a broad gradient of livestock grazing intensity in a 363 000 km2 landscape on the Tibetan Plateau, we found no evidence of livestock grazing impacts on snow leopard habitat use, bharal density and spatial distribution, even though livestock density was 13 times higher than bharal density. Bharal were found to prefer utilizing more rugged habitats at higher elevations with lower grass forage conditions, whereas livestock dominated in flat valleys at lower elevations with higher productivity, especially during the resource-scarce season. These findings suggest that the spatial niche separation between bharal and livestock, together with snow leopards’ specialized bharal diet, minimized conflicts and allowed snow leopards and bharal to coexist in landscapes dominated by livestock grazing. In recent years, reduced hunting and nomadic herder’s lifestyle changes towards permanent residence may have further reinforced this spatial separation. Our results indicated that, for developing conservation strategies for large carnivores, the niche of their prey in relation to human land-use is a key variable that needs to be evaluated.

Abstract: The cycle of livestock depredation and retaliatory killing constitutes a major threat to large carnivores worldwide and imposes considerable hardships on human communities. Mitigation efforts are often undertaken with little knowledge of ecological underpinnings and patterns of depredation, limiting conservationists' ability to develop, prioritize, and evaluate solutions. Carnivore detection and depredation data from interviews in affected communities may help address this gap, but such data are often prone to false-positive uncertainty. To address these challenges in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan we collected snow leopard, lynx, wolf, and bear detection and depredation reports from local communities via semi-structured interviews. We used a novel hierarchical multi-species multi-state occupancy model that accounted for potential false-positives to investigate carnivore site use and depredation concurrently with respondents' apparent vulnerability to that risk. Estimated false-positive probabilities were small, but failure to account for them overstated site use probabilities and depredation risk for all species. Although individual vulnerability was low, depredation was nonetheless commonplace. Carnivore site use was driven by clear habitat associations, but we did not identify any clearly important large-scale spatial correlates of depredation risk despite considerable spatial variation in that risk. Respondents who sheltered livestock in household corrals reinforced with wire mesh were less likely to report snow leopard depredations. Reducing depredation and retaliation at adequately large scales in the Pamirs will likely require a portfolio of species-specific strategies, including widespread proactive corral improvements. Our approach expanded inference on the often-cryptic processes surrounding human-carnivore conflict even though structured wildlife data were scarce.

Abstract: Protection of biodiversity requires inclusive and gender-responsive programming. Evidence of success in engaging women in large carnivore conservation remains scarce, however, although women play an important role in caring for livestock at risk of predation and could contribute to large-carnivore conservation. We aimed to assess the performance of an income-generation and skills-building programme for women in Spiti Valley (India) that sought to engage women in local conservation action. Annual programme monitoring together with a one-time survey of attitudes, perceptions and social norms in eight communities exposed to the conservation programme and seven ‘control’ communities revealed: a keen interest and increasing levels of women’s participation over 7 years of programme operation; participant reports of multiple programme benefits including additional personal income, social networking and travel opportunities; and more positive attitudes towards snow leopards among programme participants than among non-participants in the control communities. Women from programme communities recorded in their diaries 33 self-directed conservation actions including improving livestock protection and preventing wildlife poaching. These results show a way forward to purposively engage women in conservation programming towards achieving sustainable and equitable outcomes in efforts to promote carnivore–human coexistence.

Abstract: Background: Large-scale changes in habitat conditions due to human modifications and climate change require management practices to consider how species communities can alter amidst these changes. Understanding species interactions across the gradient of space, anthropogenic pressure, and season provide the opportunity to anticipate possible dynamics in the changing scenarios. We studied the interspecific interactions of carnivore species in a high-altitude ecosystem over seasonal (summer and winter) and resource gradients (livestock grazing) to assess the impact of changing abiotic and biotic settings on coexistence.
Methods: The study was conducted in the Upper Bhagirathi basin, Western Himalaya, India. We analyzed around 4 years of camera trap monitoring data to understand seasonal spatial and temporal interactions of the snow leopard with common leopard and woolly wolf were assessed in the greater and trans-Himalayan habitats, respectively. We used two species occupancy models to assess spatial interactions, and circadian activity patterns were used to assess seasonal temporal overlap amongst carnivores. In addition, we examined scats to understand the commonalities in prey selection.
Results: The result showed that although snow leopard and wolves depend on the same limited prey species and show high temporal overlap, habitat heterogeneity and differential habitat use facilitate co-occurrence between these two predators. Snow leopard and common leopard were spatially independent in the summer. Conversely, the common leopard negatively influences the space use of snow leopard in the winter. Limited prey resources (lack of livestock), restricted space (due to snow cover), and similar activity patterns in winter might result in strong competition, causing these species to avoid each other on a spatial scale. The study showed that in addition to species traits and size, ecological settings also play a significant role in deciding the intensity of competition between large carnivores. Climate change and habitat shifts are predicted to increase the spatial overlap between snow leopard and co-predators in the future. In such scenarios, wolves and snow leopards may coexist in a topographically diverse environment, provided sufficient prey are available. However, shifts in tree line might lead to severe competition between common leopards and snow leopards, which could be detrimental to the latter. Further monitoring of resource use across abiotic and biotic environments may improve our understanding of how changing ecological conditions can affect resource partitioning between snow leopards and predators.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Abstract: Livestock depredation is an important source of conflict for many terrestrial large carnivore
species. Understanding the foraging behavior of large carnivores on domestic prey is therefore
important for both mitigating conflict and conserving threatened carnivore populations. Handling
time is an important, albeit often overlooked, component of predatory behavior, as it directly
influences access to food biomass, which can affect predator foraging efficiency and subsequent
kill rates. We used long-term data on snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in Mongolia (Asia) and
Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in Norway (Europe) to examine how large carnivore foraging patterns
varied between domestic and wild prey, and how the different landscape characteristics affected
those patterns. Our results suggest handling time was generally shorter for domestic compared to
wild prey. For snow leopards, rugged terrain was linked to increased handling time for larger
prey. For lynx, handling time increased with terrain ruggedness for domestic, but not wild, prey,
and was greater in closed compared to open habitats. There were also other differences in snow
leopard and lynx foraging behavior, e.g., snow leopards also stayed longer at, and remained closer
to, their kill sites than lynx. Shorter handling time suggests that felids may have utilized domestic
prey less effectively than wild prey, i.e., they spent less time consuming their prey. This could a)
result in an energetic or fitness cost related to decreased felid foraging efficiency caused by the
risk of anthropogenic disturbance, or b) exacerbate conflict if reduced handling time associated
with easy prey results in increased livestock depredation.