It was in the thick of winter when Samat and his wife Shirin first started washing the coarse, rather dirty wool of their dozen or so sheep in front of their modest house in Ak-Shiyrak village, a community high up in the Kyrgyz Tian-Shan mountains. In the freezing cold, the pair were outside, elbow-deep in …
With remote-sensor research cameras, our field teams are surveying snow leopard populations in key habitats in five of the cat’s range countries. While these cameras are very much a research tool, they also provide us with breathtaking images of the elusive snow leopard. We’re happy to share some of the very best pics from the …
40 local school kids had an unforgettable nature experience this past month in the heart of the newly designated Tost Nature Reserve in Mongolia. They spent 5 days each in an outdoor eco-camp, where they playfully learned about the plants and animals around them.
In 2015, we decided to partner with the Kyrgyz government to turn the former hunting concession of Shamshy into a wildlife sanctuary. Now, a first small research camera survey has revealed just how diverse the area’s wildlife is.
Pakistani researchers take rare photos of the endangered snow leopard on the icy Hisper glacier in Central Karakoram National Park.
Ladakh, the starkly beautiful high mountain desert in India’s Jammu & Kashmir province, is one of the world’s best places to see wild snow leopards. It’s also one of our conservation focus areas. Our Communications Manager Matt Fiechter recently traveled to Ladakh to learn more about our ongoing community-based snow leopard conservation programs – and follow the tracks of the elusive Ghost Cat.
Mongolia’s Tost Mountains have recently been declared a State Nature Reserve, thanks to a remarkable effort by the local community. Now, it’s up to us all to help ensure that the area’s rich wildlife – including a stable snow leopard population, can thrive in this prime habitat.
Mongolia’s Parliament declares Tost a State Protected Area. The mountain range is home to a stable, breeding population of snow leopards.
Press release, Nordens Ark, Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, Snow Leopard Trust
The Pallas’s cat is a small cat species that lives in the mountains and grasslands of Central Asia, from Iran to China and Mongolia. It’s one of the least studied cats in the world and is currently listed as Near Threatened with a decreasing population by the IUCN red list of endangered species. A large international collaboration has now been initiated in order to make progress with the conservation of the species.
Our Mongolian colleague and friend Sumbe Tomorsukh would have celebrated his 28th birthday today. He was a talented researcher, and a passionate, dedicated advocate for the wildlife of his beloved Tost Mountains, in Mongolia’s South Gobi province.
