The Snow Leopard Network is pleased to announce a continuation of our series entitled “Snow Leopard Conversations”. This series aims to showcase the latest science and research related to snow leopards. We invite you to meet authors of new publications uploaded to the Snow Leopard Bibliography. These conversations are aimed to cover unexplored themes and emphasises interdisciplinary approaches. We hope to promote more such talks and discussions in future.
For this Snow Leopard Conversation we are delighted to welcome Dr. Orjan Johannson. Orjan will present the recent paper entitled “The timing of breeding and independence for snow leopard females and their cubs.” Our SLN Committee Member – Dr. Sandro Lovari – will facilitate the session.
WWF Russia and WWF-Mongolia received the first ever video and photo-confirmation that snow leopards inhabit the Mongolian side of the Ikh Sayan ridge in Khuvsgul aimag (province). There are two snow leopards captured by camera in Ikh Sayan ridge in Mongolian side. Both individuals were confirmed by WWF Russia and WWF-Mongolia experts as well-known males that WWF has been following for ages on a Russian side of the ridge.
“The video and photo confirmation of the snow leopards migrating from Russia to Mongolia and back is extremely important. It proves the importance to collaboration between both countries on scientific and governmental level to save the globally endangered species like snow leopard. The Eastern Sayan population of snow leopards in the transboundary zone of Russia and Mongolia is the only population, which portion in Mongolia totally depends on Russian animals, it’s a very isolated snow leopard population from a core snow leopard habitat”,saysAlexander Karnaukhov, Senior Coordinator of Altai-Sayan Branch of WWF Russia.
One of the snow leopards registered on Mongolian side of the ridge by cameras turned out to be “Russian” individual that WWF Russia has been observing for years. It’s a male called Munko after the name of Munku-Sardyk (Mong. Munkh Saridag) mountain ridge the individual inhabits, the border area between Russia and Mongolia. This year Munko was the first snow leopard in Russia whose mating call was recorded by WWF. Munko is a strong dominant male in his area. Another one is a snow leopard male called Champion (named by local people after the local sports champion).
Assessment of current status and identification of snow leopards in the Russian-Mongolian border areas is implemented within the frames of the Project “Transboundary cooperation on the conservation of Amur tigers, Amur leopards and Snow leopards in North-East Asia” funded by North-East Asian Subregional Programme for Environmental Cooperation (NEASPEC) in Russia. It is also implemented within the Nationwide Snow leopard population assessment in Mongolia funded by WWF-Netherlands, WWF-Germany and WWF-US.
“Mongolia and Russian joint monitoring of the transboundary snow leopard population has provided great news for us. We have a confirmation of the regular border crossing of snow leopards. Munkh Saridag mountain ridge, where Munko is recorded, is the very east-northern known distribution of Snow leopard in the world. Research is a joint success of the Ulaan Taiga and Khuvsgul Protected Area Administrations, supported by WWF-Mongolia from Mongolian side and Asia Irbis NGO supported by WWF Russia from Russian side. The monitoring work will continue for the sake of these isolated snow leopard population’s well-being in the future. Thus, WWF-Mongolia and WWF-Russia along with their respective partners from protected areas are starting to cooperate to maintain such transboundary snow leopard populations”,says Ph.D.Gantulga Bayandonoi, Species Officer at WWF-Mongolia.
The joint study in two countries is expected to obtain the reliable data on the current status of snow leopards so that priority action plans to conserve the species could be developed based on scientific data. The results will be announced in 2021.
Tsering, Dawa, and John D. Farrington. “Human-wildlife conflict, conservation, and nomadic livelihoods in the Chang Tang.” Tibetan Pastoralists and Development: Negotiating the Future of Grassland Livelihoods. Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag Wiesbaden, Germany, 2017. 141-156.
We are pleased to announce the release of the book Snow Leopards: Biodiversity of the World: Conservation from Genes to Landscapes edited by SLN members Dr. Thomas McCarthy, Dr. David Mallon. Over 200 authors contributed to this comprehensive guide to snow leopard conservation, many of whom are SLN members. We would like to thank all authors and editors for their efforts in producing this amazing volume.
The Panthera Sabin Snow Leopard Grant Program will be accepting letters of interest (LOIs) from July 1, 2016 until August 1, 2016. This program provides awards of up to $20,000 per project per year to in situ snow leopard conservation projects.
Congratulations to a group of Snow Leopard Conservation Grants recipients, who have successfully completed the first phase of their population survey in the Almaty State Reserve, and had an article about their work published in the Astana Times. The full article is available here:
SLN member organisation the Snow Leopard Trust recently released the first ever camera trap photos of snow leopards from Kyrgyzstan, which were captured as part of a snow leopard population assessment that they are conducting.
Richard Bischof of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and SLN member Muhammad Ali Nawaz of the Snow Leopard Foundation of Pakistan are conducting a Pakistani snow leopard study using scat analysis and camera trapping. Their results so far have recently been published a report in the journal, Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
The Himachal Pradesh State Wildlife Department and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests is setting up a research centre that will serve as a base for a long-term radio collaring project.
