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We at the Snow Leopard Network offer our sincerest condolences as we mourn the loss of 24 conservationists who lost their lives in a helicopter accident in Nepal on 23 September, 2006. Each of the victims offered outstanding contributions to the field of snow leopard conservation, and they will undoubtedly inspire us to further their efforts for decades to come. On a personal level, this is a shocking and grievous loss to those who had the privilege of knowing and working with them. On a professional level, this is a terrible loss for snow leopard conservation, as most of Nepal’s top conservationists were aboard. They will be missed, and let us honor their legacy by always continuing to work toward implementing greater conservation efforts in Nepal and elsewhere.

For more information, see the WWF Nepal Website.

 

August 2006- “Nature is talking to us and we should listen and act now”. This was the warning made a few days ago by the “Earth greats”, united in Curtiba, Brasil. The Ev-K²-Cnr Committee seems to have taken them literally. The Italian association led by Agostino Da Polenza has just signed an important agreement with WWF Nepal to protect the endangered species of the Sagarmatha National Park.

The agreement was signed on March, 24th 2006 by the president of the Ev-K²-CNR Committee and Dr. Chandra Gurung, Country Representative of WWF Nepal at WWF’s Baluwatar office in Kathmandu. The two associations are going to undertake research, monitoring and protection initiatives for the conservation of snow leopards living in the area and their prey. The snow leopard is the most charming feline in the world.

“This is an excellent result – commented Agostino Da Polenza – the fruit of many years’ research done by Professor Sandro Lovari. This collaboration focuses on snow leopards, but does strengthen our classical stream of biological research on Himalayan ungulates, too. Once again the Ev-K²-Cnr research programs have demonstrated not only their high scientific value, but also their capacity to give rise to concrete projects for environment valorization, ecosystem conservation and sustainable development of the fragile mountain areas, like the Sagarmatha National Park.”

Professor Lovari will be in charge of the “Snow Leopard: Vanishing Tracks on the Roof of the World” project, within the next three years. The plan foresees scientific research aimed at indentifying the number, features, and the habits of the snow leopards and prey living in the area. It also includes several initiatives for protecting and promoting all these endangered species.

Sandro Lovari has been dealing with mountain wildlife for over thirty years. Since 1989, he has been working in the Himalayas with the Ev-K²-Cnr Committee, studying tahrs in particular. The Snow Leopard project begun to take shape in 2003, as Lovari extraordinarily met a specimen of the snow leopard during a research mission in Nepal. The feline was the first one seen in the area since the species disappeared from the Sagarmatha National Park in the sixties.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has recently announced a plan to establish five wildlife reserves in Afghanistan. WCS is working in cooperation with the government of Afghanistan and receiving funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project is being headed by George Schaller, a member of the Snow Leopard Network, and will include International Snow Leopard Trust (ISLT) staff.

In addition to creating the reserves, this three-year project will include monitoring the populations of snow leopards and several prey species, as well as working with communities toward establishing eco-friendly and sustainable practices. The team carrying out the surveys will include several International Snow Leopard Trust staff. WCS recognizes the need to include local residents in any conservation effort, because they have the most potential to impact wildlife populations.

The Snow Leopard Network applauds this project. We look forward to the increased conservation in snow leopard inhabited areas that will come about as a result of these efforts.

For more information, see the press release at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060628234217.htm or http://www.wcs.org/international/Asia/afghanistan for more information on this and other WCS projects in Afghanistan.

The Launch of India’s Project Snow Leopard

 

Snow Leopard Network

 

10-11 July 2006

Leh, Ladakh, India

 

The fragile high-altitude mountain ecosystems of northern India are of enormous ecological and cultural importance. In addition to maintaining snow leopards and their prey, these ecosystems support pastoral communities, watersheds that sustain vital agriculture, and several other endangered species. However, the over-grazing of livestock strains the resources available to wild ungulates, therefore decreasing the amount of prey available to snow leopards and causing attacks on domestic herd animals. In turn, snow leopards are often the target of retribution killings as pastoral communities struggle to maintain their herds. If local communities are to continue their traditional way of life, the conservation of these magnificent cats and fragile ecosystems must become a priority.  It is this need that prompted the Nature Conservation Foundation and ISLT to pursue the establishment of a national action plan to be known as Project Snow Leopard.

 

A very successful national conference took place on 10-11 July with the purpose of launching Project Snow Leopard (PSL), a conservation initiative modeled after Project Tiger and Project Elephant with the purpose of preserving the ecosystem to which snow leopards belong through cooperating with local residents, governments, scientists, and NGOs. The conference was organized by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India (MoEF) and the Department of Wildlife Protection, Jammu and Kashmir. Also involved were the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) and International Snow Leopard Trust (ISTL). It was well attended; guests included several prominent MoEF dignitaries, officials from the forest departments of the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, and many prominent scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), NCF, and ISLT, several of whom are members of the Snow Leopard Network.

 

The workshop came as a culmination to a two-year series of state-level conferences organized by NCF and ISLT in cooperation with the governments of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir with the purpose of identifying regions that need to be included in PSL. This series of conferences resulted in a concept paper calling for a scientifically sound and socially responsible high altitude wildlife conservation strategy involving the State and Central Governments, representatives of the local communities, and conservation and development NGOs. 

 

The workshop facilitated the exchange of information between the forest departments of the five states with high-altitude ecosystems and the MoEF, and a set of thirteen recommendations decided upon so as to guide the drafting and implementation of a PSL document.

 

Recommendations of the National Workshop on Project Snow Leopard:

 

1.          The high altitudes of India (> 3000 m, c. 250,000 km², including the Himalaya and Trans-Himalaya biogeographic zones) support a unique wildlife assemblage of global importance, which needs to be conserved through a focused strategy and action plan under the Project Snow Leopard (PSL).

2.          PSL will promote wildlife conservation through a participatory process by fully involving the local communities in conservation efforts, and seeking their active participation in conservation through appropriate incentives.

3.          As a significant proportion of Himalayan high altitude wildlife occurs outside Protected Areas, PSL will follow a landscape level approach that gives due importance to conservation both within and outside Protected Areas.

4.          PSL will strengthen and enhance the capacity of state forest and wildlife departments in effectively managing high altitude wildlife through provisioning of manpower, resources, incentives, and capacity building.

5.          PSL will be formulated in line with the National Wildlife Action Plan (2001-2016), and will incorporate the salient features articulated in the state-level PSL workshops and the Snow Leopard Survival Strategy, and in addition, draw lessons from the experiences of other flagship species programmes such as the Project Tiger and Project Elephant.

6.          PSL will support research on wildlife and human dimensions throughout the high altitude areas of the snow leopard range states of India.

7.          PSL will encourage an adaptive management framework which will provide for constant monitoring of wildlife populations and human socio-economy, and for periodic course-corrections in management actions.

8.          As the high altitudes also represent a vast rangeland system, PSL will assist the states in the development of grazing policies and management practices that will aim to harmonize the objectives of pastoral interests with those of wildlife conservation.

9.          PSL will promote research-based species recovery programmes.

10.      PSL will promote community-based management programmes for resolving human-wildlife conflicts.

11.      PSL will promote conservation education and awareness initiatives.

12.      Given that most of India’s high altitude wildlife habitats are along international boundaries, PSL recognizes the importance of co-opting the armed and para-military forces in conservation efforts, and exploring possibilities for trans-boundary conservation efforts.

13.     The MoEF will constitute a committee comprising of the participating states and other key stakeholders for the drafting of the PSL strategy and action plan.

NABU: The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES), was put into force in the United States on June 20, 1976. CITES maintains a list of endangered animals and plants, and prohibits the international trade of these species. These restrictions often lead to the recovery of certain organisms and has been particularly active in the preservation of rhinos and tigers. Snow leopards have also benefited from these regulations, although the illegal trafficking of their beautiful fur and body parts used in traditional Asian medicines remains a problem.

CITES is an essential international treaty in the fight against endangered species extinction. We applaud the progress that it has facilitated, and we look forward to increased international compliance and enforcement in the future.

For more information, see the NABU website at http://nabu.de/ (German Language).

CNN, May 2006- Dr. Lisette Waits of the University of Idaho is using wild snow leopard feces to gather data for DNA analysis, in cooperation with the Snow Leopard Trust. The technology to use hair and feces for DNA sampling was developed only recently and will be very helpful with conservation efforts in the future. When the analysis is complete, her findings will provide useful information on the population dynamics of snow leopards in the wild.

The Whitney Fund for Nature, a UK-based charity that gives monetary rewards for outstanding conservation efforts, presented its most recent award on 10 May, 2006. Snow Leopard Network member Zhigang Jiang was one of the finalists. We applaud his commitment to conservation. For more information on Jiang’s work, see the WFN summary below:

Dr. Zhigang Jiang – China

Ecosystem approach to conservation of the Przewalski’s Gazelle in pastoral areas around Qinghai Lake.

The grasslands of Qinghai Lake on the Tibetan Plateau are the only place in the world where Przewalski’s gazelle can be found. Less than 300 adult gazelle remain, but they must compete with more than three million domestic livestock.

The people who live here are completely dependent on herding. Over-grazing is causing desertification and barbed-wire fences now criss-cross the plateau, creating unexpected barriers. Dr. Jiang Zhigang is working with indigenous people and the government to formulate a conservation strategy for the region.

In 1997 he successfully established the lake as a National Nature Reserve free from illegal hunting. He is now working to map key corridors between the four remaining gazelle populations to protect this, the most threatened hoofed mammal in the world.

http://www.whitleyaward.org/

New Delhi
2 May 2006

There was a small but alarming news item on the Tibetan service of Radio Free Asia today.

Recently presenters at the Amdo Tso-ngo TV channel in Qinghai, China, were instructed by the head of the Chinese government’s Information Centre and United Front Department that they must wear animal skin costumes, chubas, while presenting the news. When they said that they did not have any, the presenters were told that this was a political issue and that if they did not have a skin chuba then they must buy one. They were then immediately given money by the authorities for this.

The Chinese head of the Qinghai TV channel was interviewed by Radio Free Asia on 27 April 2006. He confirmed the story and that funds had been provided by the Chinese government’s United Front Department to purchase the animal skin chubas.

The link to the Radio Free Asia programme (which is in the Amdo language) is www.rfa.org/tibetan/dazoed.

We are trying to find out more, and in particular how widespread this instruction by the authorities is regarding the purchase and wearing of skin chubas, and whether it includes endangered species such as tiger and leopard skins that are protected by Chinese law and CITES.

=======================================================
Belinda Wright, Executive Director
WILDLIFE PROTECTION SOCIETY OF INDIA (WPSI)
S-25 Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110017, India
Tel:    (Int+ 91.11) 4163.5920 & 4163.5921
Fax:   (Int+ 91.11) 4163.5924
E-mail: wpsi@vsnl.com
Website: www.wpsi-india.org
=======================================================

News Release for SLN

April 2006- Ten years ago this month, Dr. Tom McCarthy placed the first satellite radio-collar on a snow leopard in Mongolia.  That was also the last snow leopard to be studied using any type of radio-telemetry.   The Snow Leopard Trust today announced a new study in Pakistan that will make use of cutting-edge technology by placing up to 5 GPS radio-collars on snow leopards in and near Chitral Gol National Park in autumn of this year.  The new GPS collars the Trust intends to use can record the exact position of the cat many times each day, then store the information or send it to the researchers via satellite links.

The Trust has been actively developing other high-tech research methods for snow leopards to monitor population size and trends, including trap-cameras and pioneering work on genetic finger-printing for the species.  Dr. McCarthy, Science and Conservation Director for the Snow Leopard Trust, states that ”Even with the successes of these new methods, there remain a number of questions that can only be addressed through detailed studies involving radio-telemetry.  Answering these questions is critical if we are to conserve these amazing animals.  Our findings will also help to identify ways of reducing conflicts between herders and leopards, since depredation on livestock is a source of economic hardship to the people and results in a major threat to the cats.  This new study will be of great benefit to our conservation efforts.”

The radio-collaring project will be conducted as a partnership between Pakistan‘s Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) Wildlife Department, WWF-Pakistan, and the Snow Leopard Trust.  It will be done in conjunction with a Large Carnivore Study in Chitral Gol funded by the GEF/World Bank Protected Areas Management Project (PAMP).   Funding for the radio-collaring aspects of the work has been provided by donors in the USA through a generous matching grant from the Felidae Conservation Fund.

The Snow Leopard Trust is well situated to conduct the studies, since they have been working in northern Pakistan for more than a decade and have a skilled local staff to see the project successfully through.  Dr. McCarthy will be in Pakistan for much of May working alongside NWFP and WWF biologists to initiate the study and select sites for capturing and collaring the elusive cats later this year.

For more information contact: Info@snowleopard.org

or visit  www.snowleopard.org

Its unique topography and floral diversity has made the “Tooshi Game Reserve ” one of the potential habitats of the Snow Leopard and its prey-base i.e. Markhor (Capra falconri kashmiriancis) in Chitral district. It lies in the foothills of the Hindukush Mountain range, at the distance of about a half hours’ drive from the town of Chitral. The important buffer zones are Kuju Gol/Paran and Gohtan Gol; the former is the project site of the ISLT/WWF-Pakistan’s Snow Leopard Conservation Project.

Snow Leopards have regularly been sighted in Toshi Game Reserve in the buffer zone of Kuju and Parsan since 2001, mostly in winter i.e. from January to late February. Last year the BBC team was able to film two cats. The team came again to the Chitral this year hoping to have a glimpse of the elusive cat a second time.

On 27^th January 2006, the sighting of a female Snow Leopard in the vicinity of Kuju, a project site of the snow leopard conservation project of ISLT, was reported by the wildlife official. Meanwhile, I contacted my friend Mr. Shujaat, resident of Balach Chitral, to provide his video and still camera. He was not only willing to provide the camera but also got ready to be part of the team. His volunteerism was indeed appreciable. As it was late to visit the spot that day, it was decided that the team would visit the area next day.

Before going to the proceedings, here I will share the behavior of Snow leopard as its occurrence in the aforesaid area is concerned.  According to locals, wildlife watchers and the studies so far conducted, the cat enters in the buffer zone (Kuju) when the cubs are able to move with their mother in late August. From August to November the depredation of livestock in the periphery of Kuju and Parsan is common and a mother with one of two cubs has frequently been sighted during this period. Perhaps this period is the training session for the cubs, as the livestock, which mostly consists of goats, are much easier to hunt than natural prey. Also, secondary food is readily available as the livestock move to the summer pastures during this period. In November 2005, an adult Snow Leopard with a cub entered a corral of Mr. Azam of Sin (near Kuju) and damaged 14 goats and injured 10. The same thing happened in Bokhtoli in December 2005.   

On January 28, we reached in the Toshi in the buffer zone of Kuju in the morning and were happy to see that Mr. Mark, a BBC filmmaker, had focused his camera to a ridgeline. He saw me and very carefully showed the exact spot through pointing his finger. After a short discussion with my team, selected a suitable place and mounted the movie camera on the spotting scope.  The Sow Leopard was resting on a big boulder. We stayed there till late evening. 

The next day we went early in the morning and stayed until evening, but the cat wasn’t there. On the third day there was no sighting until afternoon. We were on the ridgeline opposite to the Game Reserve. It had been raining slowly since morning and the day was getting colder and colder. How ever, Mr. Siraj Khan, our efficient cook, was making coffee at regular intervals to help us cope with the cold. While talking to a local wildlife watcher, it was revealed that a Snow Leopard den is locating near the site. I was eager to go there but the watcher said that the particular place is inaccessible, and in the current situation the area would be slippery as well. However, at last I was able to motivate him and we started trekking towards that place. When we reached the area, it was confirmed that the cat has rested on numerous occasions in this place. Feces were seen in the cave and the surrounding area was covered by broken rocks and boulders.  Some of the feces were very fresh, indicating the cat has recently spent few nights there.

Early in the evening, a Snow Leopard appeared on the ridgeline. She was slowly moving downwards to get into position for the prey. But before she got into position, one of the wild goats saw her and ran in opposite direction. Thus the snowy again missed the hunt and had to spend another night with empty stomach.

On 31^st January, we decided to go early to the area and reached it at about 6:45 am. The Snow Leopard had changed hunting zones and was seen on another ridge situated at the gateway of the Game Reserve at the distance of about one and half kilometers from the previous place. Mark, a filmmaker of private channel, hadn’t arrived yet, so we sent a message to him via a watcher and within ten minutes he reached us. All of us were confident that the cat would now hunt, as the Markhors were browsing in her range. However, the cat mounted on a boulder and slept. After an hour or so, the snow leopard again woke up and moved behind the rock. Now she was no longer visible from our current position; therefore, we had to change our place and we climbed onto another mountain. Having fixed the spotting scope, we saw the cat sleeping near prey which she already had just killed, shattering our expectations.

She slept till 2:25 pm and during this period we were continuously observing her, as it is very difficult to spot a snow leopard once the binoculars are dropped, due to its superb camouflage with the surroundings. Then, she woke up and stretched, moved a little, gazed up and came back to eat the remaining portion of her kill. She ate for about two hours and again went to sleep until evening.

The next day, the cat was sighted about five hundred meters uphill from the place where she had hunted the previous day. At about 4:30 pm when the Markhors came closer to her, she came down and waited for them to come into her range underneath a big boulder. However, before her attack, a yearling saw her and communicated the message to its colleagues. Thus, within no time all the Markhors (about 16) were out of her range of attack. This scene was visible to the naked eye; therefore, hundreds of people, including many local residents, conservationists and tourists, enjoyed these thrilling scenes from the roadside.

On 15^th February, we had the last glimpse of the cat. She moved slowly on the ridgeline, stayed there for a while, and then disappeared. My wish to make a movie and snap some pictures of the elusive cat had been fulfilled.

 

Jaffar Ud Din
Snow Leopard Field Biologist

WWF-Pakistan, Chitral