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Snow leopard kills 68 goats in a single night in Gilgit

By Shabbir Mir
Published: May 27, 2011

GILGIT:
A lone snow leopard wrecked havoc in a remote valley of Gilgit one night, killing 68 goats in six separate incidents, officials said on Thursday. The attacks also left six goats critically injured.

The animal broke into the corrals at Dhee Village, Gojal near the Pak-China border before killing the goats, Rehman Posh, a conservationist working with the Khunjerab Village Organisation, told The Express Tribune on Thursday.

“Bodies of the animals were scattered all over the place after the incident,” said Posh, adding that the people got enraged over the depredation that inflicted a huge financial loss on them.

Giving the breakdown, Rehman Posh said that 23 of the goats belonged to Mirza Mohammad, 13 to Ali Baig, 12 to Bahadur, nine to Aslam, seven to Ghulam Rasool and four to Qalandar Shah.

Talking about the different organisations that are trying to protect the endangered species, a group of villagers said they were not satisfied with their “mere lip services”.

“We have submitted our complaints. But they just come to tell us the importance of the snow leopards. They never recompense the poor herders who bear the losses,” a farmer said.

DFO Wildlife, Ghulam Mohammad, while regretting the losses, said the communities will make them up by the fees obtained from trophy hunting of Ibex and Markhor. “Apart from the trophy hunting fee, 75 percent of the entry fee of Khunjerab National Park also goes to the communities, and we hope that the loss is somewhat covered up with this income,” he said.

Attacks of snow leopard on the goats are frequent in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) as conservations blame loss of habitat, climate change, and scarcity of food are some of the factors behind the belligerent attitude of the cat. Sources say about 100 animals have been killed by snow leopards in G-B in the past one year.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27th, 2011.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/176829/snow-leopard-kills-68-goats-in-a-single-night-in-gilgit/

Wildlife photos on the web: snow leopard photo popular

Wildlife on the web
K. JESHI

A number of online forums initiate one into the wonders of wildlife, photography and more

When wildlife photographer R. Prakash posted a photograph of a rare sighting of a male leopard and a melanistic (black) female leopard on India Nature Watch (INW), a popular online forum for wildlife photographers, there were 175 comments on it.

“Now, it is the photograph of a snow leopard which got 180 comments,” says Prakash. His photographs of tigers and leopards spotted at Ranthambore Sanctuary, Saras cranes at Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary, the great pied hornbill (the fast vanishing Indian hornbill) in the Anamalais and the Lion Tailed Macaques (LTMs) are all up on www.indianaturewatch.com. It is an educative forum where photographers log on and post their comments.

There is a treasure trove of information available online on wildlife, Nature and photography. INW is a non-commercial website that is a free online resource for nature lovers of all skill levels, from beginners to professionals. The focus is on India.

On registering, users are given an email and a password. This allows them to log on and post pictures. Wildlife enthusiasts, photographers, office goers and students log on and share their experiences regularly. Users can showcase their images in the ‘Image Gallery Section’. There is also a ‘Discussion Forum’.

“If you post a query on, say, birds, other wildlife or even cameras, you get 100 replies instantly, which is motivating,” says Prakash, a regular at INW. A lot of professionals log on and post their comments. For wildlife enthusiasts, it becomes an addiction as it opens up the world of Nature. They also make friends, organise live events where they meet and enhance their awareness on wildlife.

The forum has various categories such as mammals, birds, reptiles, butterflies, landscape and others. One can upload photographs there and the result is a collection of extraordinary images of wildlife from across India. Amateurs upload their photographs too.

“There is plenty of assistance to visit places throughout India, especially wildlife national parks and sanctuaries,” says Jayaprakash Ramanujam who has been into wildlife photography for over six years.

Websites such as www.toehold.com organise wildlife tours regularly. Most important, the website also rents out expensive cameras and lenses for those who can’t afford to buy them, he adds. His recent visits to Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya Pradesh and Todaba Wildlife Sanctuary in Maharashtra proved to be memorable, as he had gathered all the information, including places to stay from INW.

V. Ram Narayanan, an avid wildlife photographer for over two decades, says online forums enhance knowledge. “You have access to top class photographs. This helps you improve your own photographic skills immensely,” he says. The latest news and information about wildlife and technical expertise on photography are the added perks. His son Gaurav Ram Narayanan, a class VIII student, posts his Nature photographs and participates in online discussions.

INW documents Indian wildlife, fauna and flora, which makes it useful for beginners. “Photography is all about sharing. Immediate feedback is satisfying and the suggestions motivate you to work better. The information is reliable as renowned photographers participate in the forum,” Prakash explains. He will soon post the photographs of nine tigers he clicked at Bandhavgarh National Park.

Information on camera equipment and lenses are available too at the click of the mouse. A website on creative photography run by members of INW talks about how to approach a photograph creatively. And, there is more.

KNOW MORE

www.indianaturewatch.com

Index

http://www.creativenaturephotography.net

www.indianaturewatch.com

Index

http://www.creativenaturephotography.net

Keywords: wildlife, online forums, wildlife photographers

http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/article2028993.ece

Snow Leopard Conservancy, founded by Dr. Rodney Jackson

Protecting snow leopards
By Emily Charrier-Botts INDEX-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 5, 2011 – 02:25 PM

More has been done to protect snow leopards, one of the most elusive creatures on the planet, by a tiny organization in a small house in Boyes Hot Springs than by almost anyone else in the world. The Snow Leopard Conservancy, founded by Sonoma resident Dr. Rodney Jackson, marks its 10th year of defending the endangered species across the 10 countries it inhabits with a fundraising party on Saturday, May 22.

“We’ve been really focused on mobilizing local people as the stewards of their environment,” Jackson said. “It’s really starting to pay off.”

Jackson said during his 10 years of working to protect snow leopards, he has recently seen an increase in the number of cats spotted, a sign that the overall population has increased. But despite specific gains in the number of sightings, particularly in India, Northern Pakistan and Mongolia, Jackson said there is still much work to be done. Numerous camera traps set up across Eastern Russia, where snow leopards are known to roam, failed to capture a single image of any cats.

“We would not expect that to be the case,” Jackson said.

So how does one organization with just three employees protect an endangered species half a world away? Jackson said it all comes down to working with the tiny mountain communities where the leopards live.

“The best guardians are the local people,” Jackson said, explaining the conservancy’s job is to work collaboratively with communities to change residents’ perspective from viewing the leopards as a pest to an asset. “We want to create a direct link between the presence of the cat and the economics of their community. We make sure the community’s ideas, interests and concerns are incorporated.”

Despite being an endangered species protected in all countries, snow leopards are heavily hunted, not just for their exquisite fur but also because many natives see them as a dangerous nuisance that preys on their livestock. Jackson goes into these communities and teaches the residents not only how to protect their livestock from snow leopards, but also how to profit from the leopards by leading tourist treks to try to spot the animals.

“We let them see for themselves what the value of these animals are,” he said.

During his most recent trip, he traveled to the Khumbu area of Nepal surrounding Mount Everest, where snow leopards have only recently reestablished a habitat after decades of poaching that drove them completely out of the region. Jackson worked with a small community there to create an innovative micro-loan program that will help boost the economy of the community while also protecting snow leopards.

Under the newly-established Savings and Credit Act, the Conservancy deposited $1,200 into a savings account. Jackson then got dozens of households in the town to buy a share of the money by committing to continue adding to the account at a rate of 100 rupees ($1.30) a month. In exchange, the families can get loans from the savings account at an interest rate of 18 percent, when the average loan rate in Nepal is 30 percent.

“If the local people want to get money to build a house or fix their roof or buy supplies for their store, they had to go to the village lender … And these guys are notorious,” Jackson said.

Instead, the villagers can now control their own finances as a community. In exchange for the start-up capital, the account sharers agreed to spend a portion of the loan interest earned on snow leopard conservation, including educational activities to spread awareness to children and reimbursing those who lose livestock to the cats.

They also promise to report poachers. Jackson said the community has enthusiastically embraced the program, even throwing a cultural festival where they raised $800 for their account.

“This community has been doing (the program) for 10 months and they have already doubled their account,” Jackson said, adding that he hopes to implement similar programs in other communities and countries.

Working with Texas A&M University, Jackson has also helped develop new technology to help track snow leopards using satellite images that can pinpoint the locations where the cats are most likely to live. Jackson then takes a team into those locations and collects leopard skat, which is analyzed to tell researchers the gender of the animal and how many cats have passed through that area.

“That helps us determine where we’ll target our community efforts,” he said.

For his innovative conservation efforts, Jackson has been nominated for the Indianapolis Prize for the third time in the past five years. The $100,000 grant is considered the most prestigious award for conservation and wildlife protection. He will find out at the end of the year if the third time is the charm for winning the grant.

With an annual budget of just $300,000, Jackson has successfully implemented some degree of snow leopard protection in almost all of the countries the animal inhabits, which often means cutting through difficult political red tape. But Jackson said more funds are needed to continue spreading awareness and protecting the leopards so their numbers can increase to the level once seen across the Himalayas.

“It’s such a huge area we have to cover, how do we scale up? That’s where people in Sonoma can help. Small amounts of dollars can go a long way over there,” he said.

On Saturday, May 22, the conservancy will host the Snow Leopard Gala, a 10-year retrospective, at the Janet Pomeroy Center in San Francisco. The event includes a Himalayan-style bazaar, wildlife encounters with a bactrian camel and a feline ambassador, and a silent auction that includes mini safaris, behind-the-scenes tours of the San Francisco Zoo and a special package from the San Francisco Giants. Jackson will also speak, explaining the extensive work the Snow Leopard Conservancy has done during the past 10 years. Tickets are $75 and can be purchased by calling 935-3851 or info@snowleopardconservancy.org.

To donate to the conservancy or learn more about Jackson’s work, visit www.snowleopardconservancy.org.
http://www.sonomanews.com/News-2011/Protecting-snow-leopards/

In the trans-Himalayan region, a conservation effort has reduced conflicts between snow leopards and pastoralists (India)

Volume 28 – Issue 10 :: May. 07-20, 2011
INDIA’S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU • Contents

An encounter in snow

TEXT & PHOTOGRAPH: KULBHUSHANSINGH SURYAWANSHI

In the trans-Himalayan region, a conservation effort has reduced conflicts between snow leopards and pastoralists.

Project Snow Leopard, launched by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2009, focusses on conservation on a landscape level rather than in just protected areas.

AN hour of hard climbing through knee-deep snow took me to the crest of the plateau at an altitude of 4,500 metres. I gasped for breath in the rarefied air of the endless Tibetan steppe grassland that extended in front of me. Resting my weight on an ice axe, I was admiring the panoramic view when a silhouette on the snow caught my eye. It was a snow leopard moving gently, almost like an elf, hardly leaving a footprint. It was about 200 metres away, perpendicular to my line of sight, and seemed unaware of my presence. I sank to my knees and reached for my binoculars.

The snow leopard is the most shy and elusive of all the big cats in the world. Very little information is available on its ecology and behaviour. In fact, until a few decades ago, it was as if the majestic beast was a mythical creature. Very few outsiders have seen it in its natural environment in the high altitudes of the Himalayas. I got this rare opportunity in Spiti Valley in the remote trans-Himalayan region of Himachal Pradesh.

Suddenly, the snow leopard stopped, crouched low, and started staring at something. From my position I could not see what it was looking at. I crawled to the top of a small hump in the rolling plains, taking care to avoid being seen by the animal. A group of about 30 bharal ( Pseudois nayaur) was grazing on a small patch of grass about 300 metres from the snow leopard.

The bharal is a species of wild goat found in the Himalayan and Tibetan plateau region and is one of the most important prey of the snow leopard. In appearance it is more similar to the hypothetical common ancestor of goats and sheep than either of the two. Of stocky build, it weighs, on an average, about 55 kilograms. The males have beautiful curled horns and sometimes reach well over 70 kg, while the females have thin horns that are only a few centimetres in length.

The snow leopard had moved behind a clump of caragana ( Caragana brevifolia) bushes and, from a crouched position, was intently watching the bharal. Local legend has it that snow leopards can ‘dissolve’ in the mountains. Indeed, the leopard had merged completely with the ground and almost melted in front of my eyes. It was incredible to see an animal as large as the snow leopard ‘disappearing’ in an open plain. Although I knew exactly where it was, I could not see its shape or outline or anything for that matter. I caught an occasional glimpse of it when it moved.

Using the cover of small rocks and bushes, it now started moving closer to the bharal. There was an unnerving silence all around. Just when I expected the snow leopard to move closer to the bharal, the silence was broken by the loud ‘honking’ of a donkey. It came from behind me; the livestock of the village had moved closer and was now about 500 metres behind me. There were over 50 donkeys, 150 cows/cow-yak hybrids, and 250 sheep and goats, and they were being herded by two elderly men and two boys who were barely in their teens.

I thought a donkey had noticed the snow leopard and was braying in alarm, but through my binoculars I saw that the donkeys were just running after each other in a playful fight. The snow leopard withdrew further into the rocks and kept a close eye on both the livestock and the bharal.

Livestock is an equal or better alternative prey for the snow leopard. It can sneak close to the herds and when the herders are busy with their tea or chatting make off silently with a goat or a sheep or sometimes even a donkey or a cow. The snow leopard even attacks free-ranging horses and yaks, taking the young and the weak. Pastoralists from certain areas sometimes lose up to 18 per cent of their livestock to the snow leopard and other predators such as the Tibetan wolf. This behaviour of the snow leopard gets it into conflict with pastoralists, sometimes drawing serious retaliatory action from them. This is one of the biggest challenges for snow leopard conservation throughout its distribution range in Central Asia.

Livestock numbers up

The trans-Himalayan region is extremely low in productivity, comparable to the Arctic region or deserts. As a result, livestock and wild herbivores, such as the bharal, compete for the limited fodder available in the rangelands. The entire region is covered by over two feet of snow throughout winter, making it even more difficult for wild herbivores to find food. During this season, livestock are fed on fodder that pastoralists have stored. Thus, in the past couple of decades wild herbivore populations have declined even as livestock numbers have increased. This has led to the increased dependence of predators such as the snow leopard and the Tibetan wolf on livestock, intensifying the conflict between predators and pastoralists.

In the trans-Himalayan region, wildlife populations are spread across the landscape, the contiguity being broken only by natural barriers such as high mountain ridges and rivers and, more recently, by the large human settlements with a large number of livestock. Even wild herbivores are spread across the entire landscape but are found in extremely low densities. Project Snow Leopard, which the Ministry of Environment and Forests launched in 2009, recognises these problems and focusses on conservation on a landscape scale rather than in just the protected areas.

Here, I had the rare opportunity of seeing the snow leopard faced with the choice of hunting a wild herbivore or livestock. Although just the presence of livestock would not tempt a snow leopard to take the risk, a hungry carnivore would not ignore the chance of picking up straying cattle.

The snow leopard retreated further into the rocks and I could not see it any more. I held my position for a long time. Before I realised it, evening was upon us. It got colder and dark. The livestock had also retreated towards the village. The stalemate had been resolved. The livestock had been ignored over the bharal, saving the herder and the snow leopard a lot of trouble.

THE EFFORTS OF the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore, in the reserved area of Kibber village have had a positive impact on several wildlife species. Besides the snow leopard, the village reserve is now home to the bharal, the Himalayan ibex (above), the Tibetan wolf, the stone marten, the pale weasel and many bird species such as the golden eagle, the lammergeier and the Himalayan griffon (below).

The next morning I went back to the Rungalong plateau, the site of the pervious day’s encounter with the snow leopard. A scanning of the landscape drew my attention to a flock of vultures. They led me to the place where the snow leopard had made its kill the previous night – a male bharal, about four years old. The vultures were tearing at whatever remained of the kill. The snow around the kill was sprayed in red, and the pugmarks told the story. There were few signs of a struggle; the marks on the throat indicated a swift kill. There was still some portion of the kill left, and I expected the leopard to return for it in the evening.

I returned to the village where I met the livestock herder. I told him what I had seen the previous day. He was first disappointed because I had not warned him of the danger. But then he added that snow leopards did not attack livestock very often in areas with a good bharal population.

Rungalong is adjacent to the reserved area of Kibber village, where the people, with support from the Nature Conservation Foundation, a non-governmental organisation based in Mysore, had stopped grazing their livestock so as to help revive the bharal population.

Local initiative

Charudutt Mishra of the NCF, who first came to this region as a PhD student, understood the problem of conflict between pastoralists and the snow leopard. He convinced the local people to set aside a certain area of their rangeland to facilitate the recovery of wild herbivores such as the bharal. At the same time, along with the youth of the village, he started a livestock insurance scheme that compensated pastoralists for loss of livestock to wild carnivores at the current market price of the livestock.

Changing attitudes

THE TIBETAN WOLF. In the past couple of decades, the decline in wild herbivore populations and the growth in livestock numbers have led to the increased dependence of predators such as the snow leopard and the Tibetan wolf on livestock.

These initiatives have helped increase the populations of wild herbivores and change people’s attitudes towards wild carnivores in Spiti Valley and a few other places where this model has been replicated. In the eight years since the launch of this initiative, the region has seen an over-sixfold increase in the population of the bharal. Although its effect on the foraging pattern of the snow leopard is still scientifically unclear, local people strongly believe that an increase in the bharal population has reduced the danger to livestock from snow leopards and wolves.

The conservation effort has also had a positive impact on other wildlife species. The village reserve is today home to many animals such as the bharal, the Himalayan ibex, the Tibetan wolf, the snow leopard, the stone marten, the pale weasel and many bird species such as the golden eagle, the lammergeier and the Himalayan griffon. Also, encountering a snow leopard is much more common today than it was before.

Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi is a research scholar with the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore.

For the full article with photos, please follow this link: https://snowleopardnetwork.org/bibliography/Suryawanshi_2011.pdf

Snow Leopard captured on camera trap, Uttarakhand State, India

The image was released by by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) under Project Snow Leopard.

Here is the 1st on Snow Leopard in one of its last known habitat. The state forest department of Uttarakhand state (with cover of greater Himalayas) of India with help of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) found its first Snow Leopard by the virtue of a camera trap in the Malari region of the greater Himalayas. Malari falls under the Nandadevi Biosphere reserve and is a reserved forest region. The news comes as a great relief of the state forest department as the Snow Leopards were almost extinct from the region. Local farmers and nomadic shepherd have known to poach the cat for good prices of its skin and bone, bringing it on the brink of extinction.

One of the many camera traps installed by the team of WII and state forest department captured the elusive image of Snow Leopard. The region was tipped as a habitat with high density of Leopard but those claims turned out to be incorrect. After several other clipping of Himalayan Tahr, Ibex (Bharal), Marmot and Musk Deer finally there was this cat on the camera. It was indeed a moment of joy for those who are really concerned about the status of this ghost of the mountains.

The image of the cat is breakthrough news of the local forest department as well. The legends of this cat know as ‘Him Tendua’ in Hindi has been part of stories and folklore since time immemorial. Although I heard many a stories from villagers and nomads it was the first time a conclusive evidence was reported in the state where I live.

Congrats to the SLN fraternity. Hope we get many more evidence like these.

Thanks to Yogendra Joshi for this posting. 19Apr11.

Ed Fischer upcoming book on searching for snow leopards

Chasing the elusive snow leopard
Squamish resident set to share story of his 30-year search for Asian ‘phantom’

Squamish resident Ed Fischer pauses during an acclimitization hike in May of 2010. Behind Ed are some of the typically upturned stratifications of the Stok Range; this was once an ancient seabed that was pushed up in front of the Himalayas as the Indian subcontinent collided with Asia 70 million years ago.

April 8, 2011

Ben Lypka
blypka@squamishchief.com

The snow leopard is known throughout the animal kingdom as a secretive animal.

The large cat is native to the mountain ranges of South and Central Asia and lives a highly solitary life. Because of the animal’s secretive nature and ability to remain well camouflaged, human interaction has been extremely limited.

The animal’s lifestyle is part of what attracted Squamish resident Ed Fischer to the majestic beast. For close to 30 years, he made it a life goal to spot a snow leopard in its natural habitat, and he will be showing his findings to anyone interested at the Squamish Adventure Centre theatre on April 20 with his “Chasing the Phantom” slideshow.

“I read Peter Matthiessen’s book, The Snow Leopard and was really inspired by it,” he said. “So back in 1985 I sort of went on a self-discovery voyage and spent the better part of the year looking for wild snow leopards in the Ladakh area in India.”

Despite a few close calls, Fischer ultimately was unsuccessful in his goal to see a snow leopard in the wild back in 1985.

“I did see a still-steaming carcass of a Dall sheep when I was 17,000 feet up and it probably was a snow leopard’s kill, but it was nowhere to be seen,” he said. “That was the closest I ever got back then and for the next 20-year period, I was so busy with business that I had no time to go back. But recently I had some free time and decided I’m going to go back and look for the cats.”

It wasn’t until the fall of 2009 that Fischer returned to the region, but he admitted that the desire to spot a snow leopard in the wild never really left.

“I really relate to the snow leopard as an animal,” he said. “It’s really a soloist of an animal and that’s part of the reason why I decided to try and spot it all on my own. The usual way with normal tourists is you find a guide and he leads you. That’s not really my nature to do something like that.”

For the next two months, Fischer searched for the snow leopard. Typically, he would look for tracks or scat that the cats left behind and try to figure out what the animal’s next move would have been. Again, he had several close calls but seemed to be just missing the creatures.

“One day I found some fresh tracks and it appeared the animal was running away,” he said. “It got away and while I was trying to track it, down came 25 centimetres of fresh snow, covering up the tracks. It was cold, I was exhausted and my feet were swollen, so I called it a day.”

Fischer said it seemed as though the leopards were toying with him at one point during the trip.

“I remember looking at my own tracks one morning and seeing the tracks of a snow leopard inside my own boot print,” he said. “It was almost like they were mocking me.”

He returned to Squamish at the end of November 2009, still not having seen an elusive snow leopard. However, he returned the following spring, with his wife Helen Habgood.

“She’s full of spirit and adventure,” he said of his wife. “She would have gone with me before, but she’s a partner in her own business and can be very busy. I figured that she would be good to bring along because she’s very observant and is able to find things around the house all the time when I can’t.”

After a few unsuccessful weeks, the duo finally achieved their goal, spotting an entire family of snow leopards.

“When we finally did see them, we were only the third party to pass through that particular area for years,” he said. “It was totally unspoiled land and it was so ironic to see a family after everything I’ve read that they are solo animals. We talked to the locals and they told us how rare it was to see a family. We were both pretty amazed.”

Fischer is also working on a book about his travels searching for the snow leopard and is about one quarter done. He said he’s not sure when the book will be released but admitted the final product is a ways off.

The slideshow is about 90 minutes long and Fischer said that if ticket sales continue at the steady pace they’re going at, he may add a second show that evening. The first scheduled show takes place April 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the Squamish Adventure Centre theatre. Tickets are $6 and can be purchased in advance at the Adventure Centre box office. As of press time only 15 remained.

For more information and a preview of Fischer’s upcoming book, visit his website at www.chasingthephantom.com.

http://www.squamishchief.com/article/20110408/SQUAMISH0501/304089936/-1/squamish/chasing-the-elusive-snow-leopard

Ecologists see increasing snow leopard population in Tuva

http://eco.rian.ru/nature/20110317/354921373.html

Ecologists see increasing snow leopard population in Tuva

Mar 22 (dateline below listed differently)

Moscow, 17 March – RIA Novosti WWF’s Altai-Sayan Program announced that the snow leopard population along the southern part of the Shapshal’sky Ridge and on the Tsagan-Shibetu Ridge in Tuva Republic is in good condition and that the female snow leopards are reproducing.

Snow leopards are one of the least studied large cat species in the world. This is related in part due to the inaccessibility of their habitat as well as the species’ rarity.

Aleksandr Kuksin, Ubsunurskaya Kotlovina staff, is quoted as saying, “The snow leopards here are successfully reproducing, and we are constantly seeing signs of females with offspring along the Tsagan-Shibetu Ridge. This means that the predator’s population is being complemented with young individuals, and that overall the group of snow leopards in the southern part of Shapshal’sky Ridge and on Tsagan-Shibetu Ridge in Tuva can be called favorable. It can be assumed that the snow leopard population even slightly increased between 2004 and 2011.”

Signs of snow leopard activity were discovered in all river valley studied, including the Khemchika and Shuya headwaters and the Toolaylyg and Barlyk Rivers watersheds. Researchers identified 19 signs of snow leopards belonging to 17 different snow leopards, and there was a single encounter with the rare predatory. In 2004 in that same region, 13 snow leopard spoors were found, belonging to 8-10 individuals. Staff from Ubsunurskaya Kotlovina Zapovednik staff and Tuva’s state Hunting and Fishing Committee staff conducted field research to assess snow leopard and Siberian mountain goat populations concluded on March 6

In addition to finding the spoor of this rare predatory, expedition participants found numerous sites showing ongoing marking activities by snow leopard, which like any cat, they use to indicate individual territories.

Approximately 40 scat samples were gathered and will be sent to the Severtsov Institute for Ecology and Evolution Problems (RAS) for DNA analysis, which will permit determination of the population’s size, their gender, and age.

Evidence of snow leopard on Shapshal’sky Ridge and Tsagan-Shibetu

Moreover, snow leopard excrement is needed to train scent dogs, an activity now being conducted with WWF-Russia support in Barnaul. In the future Erik the German shepherd, now being trained to locate and identify snow leopard spoor by scent, will support Tuvan and Altai conservationists in fieldwork.

“Today, Erik is training using excrement from zoos, but using material collected in the snow leopard’s natural habitat will significantly increase the dog’s competence, because the dog will be working in this predator’s actual habitat, “ explain WWF-Russia experts.

In addition, expedition participants observed 148 mountain goats (Siberian mountain goats), which, in comparison with past years, indicates the stability of this grouping. A low-snow winter has left grazing areas accessible to mountain goats in the high mountains, where over the course of the winter a significant portion of ungulates remained. The main threats to snow leopards remain shepherds that lose sheep to predator attacks and local snare poachers, according to WWF-Russia. One to two local snow leopards are lost every year as a result of an animal accidentally ending up in a snare trap. The inspectors that participated in the expedition succeeded in arresting three poachers from Ovyursky Rayon for illegal mountain goat hunting along the Eldig-Khem River.

Translation courtesy of Jennifer Castner.

BBS Blog mentions Snow Leopard Network

Big cats prefer the taste of wild flesh
Post categories: Conservation

Matt Walker | 12:01 UK time, Tuesday, 5 April 2011

Asiatic lions are extending their limited range

Conservation stories can be hard to tell. Not so the story of the Asiatic lion – which is a rare beast, in every sense.

New research just published highlights an increase in the numbers of Asiatic lions surviving in the Gir Forest of India.

The numbers aren’t large. From a base of 180 lions left in 1974, the population has risen to 411 by 2010.

But that’s impressive considering just a few dozen survived at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Even more impressive is how it was achieved (more of that later) and how lessons might be learnt that could help ensure the survival of other threatened big cats, such as snow leopards.

It may seem odd to say that conservation stories can be hard to tell. BBC Nature has recently reported on the decline in British oil beetles, and how an oil spill is affecting up to 10,000 rockhopper penguins on Tristan da Cunha island, a UK overseas territory.

But they are hard to report. Not because they don’t matter – they do, hugely so. And not because they are dull – they are not, often focusing on some of the world’s most beautiful, iconic, unique or interesting species.

They are hard to tell because they tend to follow the same narrative: a once populous species suffers an alarming decline in numbers due to habitat loss, poaching, invasive species or disease.

It can become numbing to repeatedly hear this basic plot line. So much so that we struggle to listen to the hugely complex web of ecological factors that can drive a species toward extinction, or help bring it back.

That’s why it’s important to celebrate the good news stories. If you care about wildlife, you’ll want to celebrate them for their own sake. But it’s important to highlight them for another reason: because success breeds success, and successful breeding programmes can help bolster each other.

Take India’s Gir lions.

Asiatic lions are a subspecies of the modern lion, which remains much more abundant in Africa, although its numbers there are dwindling. Being a subspecies doesn’t make the Asiatic lion less worthy – it’s the last of a kind that once roamed the Asian subcontinent.

This big cat has a preference for dry deciduous forests, thorny forests and savannah, which have disappeared fast in India. But it’s also worth remembering something that seems obvious: big cats have a taste for wild flesh.

The key to the Gir lions’ revival appears to have been a dramatic increase in the numbers of wild ungulates. Between 1970 and 2010, numbers of chital, sambar, blue bull and wild boar among others rose 10-fold in total within the Gir forest in the southwest part of the Saurashtra region in the state of Gujarat, scientists report in the journal Biological Conservation.

Even more important, this new abundance of natural food meant the lions no longer relied on hunting livestock, which brought them into direct contact, and conflict, with local herders.

The increase in prey, and lions, has come as the result of decades of hard work and intensive management by conservationists in Gujarat.

The big cats are even tentatively dispersing out into their former range with a quarter of the population (35 males, 35 females, 19 subadults and 16 cubs at the last count) now existing outside the Gir forest.

Lessons learned here could be vital for bringing other large carnivores back from the brink.

Which brings us to the snow leopard. Fewer than 7000 snow leopards are thought to survive in the mountains of central Asia.

New research has, for the first time, attempted to establish exactly what wild snow leopards in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Baltistan, Pakistan, are eating.

The study, published in the European Journal of Wildlife Research, examined the faeces, or scats, left by these elusive animals.

It revealed that 70% of what snow leopards are eating in the region is domestic livestock, and a range of livestock at that: 23% of the biomass eaten came from sheep, 16% from goat, 10% from cattle and the rest from yak or yak-cattle hybrids.

This heavy predation on domestic livestock appears to be a likely cause of conflict with local inhabitants – and when conflict between humans and wild animals occurs, there tends to be only one winner.

So it’s clear that conservation initiatives need to focus on mitigating this conflict by minimising livestock losses – and one way to do that, the Gir lions recovery tells us, is to boost wild prey numbers once more.

(On a related note, news arrived late last month, sent by the Snow Leopard Network, (SLN) that the Mongolian government has reversed an earlier decision to allow the killing of four snow leopards in the country. The volte face came after pressure from conservationists, including Charudutt ‘Charu’ Mishra, executive director of the SLN and a past winner of the Whitley Gold Award.)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2011/04/gir-lion-revival-offers-food-f.shtml#more

Snow leopard killing livestock in Gilgit, Pakistan

Wildlife: Snow leopard on the prowl in Gilgit
By Shabbir Mir
Published: April 5, 2011
The endangered animal has been on a killing spree of cattle for weeks.

GILGIT:
A snow leopard – also known as the Uncia or Panthera uncial – went on a killing spree in a remote Valley of Gilgit late on Sunday, slaughtering a dozen goats owned by a poor shepherd.

The incident occurred in a pre-dawn attack at Nazim Abad – a village of Sost Gojal, which is about 300 kilometres from Gilgit and is adjacent to the Pak-China border at Sost.

Chairman Khunjerab Village Organisation (KVO) Rehman Posh, who is also a conservationist, told The Express Tribune that, “The wild cat has killed 11 live stock including goat and sheep.” He added that the snow leopard had managed to break into a cattle shed, belonging to Ashim Shah, a shepherd.

“I examined the spot after a villager informed me of the incident and found that seven cattle were dead while four were seriously injured,” he said, adding that the wounded animals were put down as they had little to no chances of survival.

Posh said that the snow leopard has been on the rampage for the past couple of week in the valley, as it had previously killed two domesticated animals (yaks) in the Morphun area. He said that in the wake of the attacks, locals have stepped up security of their livestock as the assaults usually come as surprise.

Posh added that the incident was immediately brought to the notice of the forests and wildlife department. Asked if they will provide any compensation to the owner of the cattle, the chairman said that they were in the process of dialogue with the aggrieved party and said that his organisation would provide compensation to the farmer. He, however, didn’t say how much.

Divisional forests officer [DFO] Wildlife Ghulam Mohammad told The Express Tribune that he has assigned the task of verification and compilation of the report of the incident to his subordinates. He said that such incidents in the Gilgit-Baltistan are frequent and that a systematic approach is needed to settle the issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5th, 2011.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/143103/wildlife-snow-leopard-on-the-prowl-in-gilgit/

National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) and US-based Snow Leopard Conservancy has launched snow leopard conservation project in Nepal

Snow leopard conservation project

Added At: 2011-04-03 11:36 PM
Last Updated At: 2011-04-03 11:36 PM
The Himalayan Times – HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: The National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) and US-based Snow leopards Conservancy has launched the snow leopard conservation project.

Altogether there are 4,510 to 7,350 snow leopards across the world. Nepal has around 500 of them.”Special efforts are required to conserve the species,” said Som Ale, an expert.

In Nepal, the snow leopard is found in Mustang, Mugu, Dolpa and Humla. The government has legally protected the snow leopard by including it on the list of protected animals in the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1973 and provisioning penalties up to NRs 100,000 or 5 to 15 years imprisonment or both, for poaching snow leopards and buying and selling of its pelt and bones.

“We are now gearing up efforts to conserve a most elusive species in the world,” said Krishna Prasad Acharya, Director General, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation.

The snow leopard-human conflict is taken as one of the main threats to its survival as it is known to kill sheep, goats, horses, and yak calves.

“The snow leopards are facing the problem of poaching and habitat loss, so there is need for community-based conservation efforts to tackle this problem,” said Juddha Bahadur Gurung, Member Secretary, NTNC.

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Snow+leopard+conservation+project+&NewsID=282531