Great news for snow leopards and local herding communities: the Mongolian government has decided to expand the Tost Nature Reserve in the country’s South Gobi province by 150 km2. In doing so, the government also revoked a mining license that had threatened a water source that is critical for people and wildlife.
In a rare discovery, researchers from Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation and Snow Leopard Trust located the den site of a wild snow leopard named Dagina in Mongolia’s Tost Mountains. They found three healthy cubs in the den. Dagina is the oldest known wild snow leopard mother in the world.
In the first study ever investigating disease threats to this highly vulnerable species, researchers detect exposure to infections that may pose a threat to wild snow leopards, as well as local people and their livestock.
Bayara Agvaantseren received the 2019 Goldman Environmental Prize for her role in protecting the snow leopard stronghold of Tost from mining. But the Snow Leopard Trust’s Mongolia Program Director is quick to point out that the success was not hers alone, but rather the result of an extraordinary team effort.
Snow Leopard Trust Mongolia Director and 2019 Goldman Prize winner Bayara Agvaantseren has taken an unusual path to becoming an environmental hero.
Site of the world’s most comprehensive snow leopard study, critical link in a network of Protected Areas and home to more than a dozen of these elusive cats – Mongolia’s Tost Mountains are a unique and irreplaceable snow leopard stronghold.
Three years after her landmark victory for snow leopards, our Mongolia Program Director Bayara Agvaantseren narrates how the only Protected Area in the world dedicated exclusively to these cats was created against all odds.
Supported by small grants from Snow Leopard Trust donors, local community members in Mongolia put their own conservation ideas into action.
A camera trap study in South Gobi’s Khorkh mountain range confirmed the presence of snow leopards along with lynx, ibex and argali.
The Snow Leopard Trust’s research team is currently tracking a record nine wild snow leopards in Mongolia’s Tost Mountains with GPS collars. Here’s a look at these nine cats and what we know about them.
