Abstract: Full Text:
Xining, China Daily, Jan. 31--Police have detained a man for trying to smuggle two dead snow leopards, an endangered species under State protection, through the Xining Railway Station in Northwest China's Qinghai Province. Ma Deliang was stopped by police after he attempted to pass the butchered snow leopards off as beef at a shop in Sichuan Province. Ma later confessed that he bought the dead snow leopards at a local market and wanted to smuggle them to Deyang in Sichuan Province. Police also searched Ma's home and found dear heads, antlers and lynx and fox furs. Snow leopards live in highlands of altitudes between 3,000 to 6,000 metres above sea level. The population of the species has dwindled greatly since the 19th century.

Abstract: The Disappearance of traditional ungulate prey of the snow leopard may be contributing to its endangered status in the wild. Soviet biologists have noted that wild sheep are a primary prey of the snow leopard in the southern Russian union republic and the Central Asian union republic of the U.S.S.R. While poaching appears to have had some impact on the status of these sheep, econmic pressures may be contributing to their decrease. Evidence presented for KAzakhstan and three regions of the Russian republic demonstrates that commercial sheep and goat production appears to be growing at a very high pace in these areas, thus consumming habitat otherwise available for wild herds.