How a community in Pakistan went from capturing snow leopards to protecting them.
Category: Field Work
Counting Ibex: Fall Prey Surveys Completed
Scientists and rangers in Mongolia conduct a comprehensive survey of ibex and argali, the snow leopard’s preferred prey species, in the Tost and Noyon mountains. The populations currently look stable and sufficiently large to sustain the area’s snow leopards.
Putting a Price Tag on Nature’s Priceless Gifts
The value of nature’s goods and services that local people living in Asia’s mountains depend on is several times more than their average household income. In other words, if things such as fresh water and productive grasslands provided by the ecosystem were lost, it would spell ruin for these communities. These are the results of …
Dagina Is Back on the Air
Dagina, an eight-year old female snow leopard we’ve known since she was a tiny cub, becomes our latest cat to be tracked with a GPS collar in the world’s most comprehensive study of wild snow leopards.
Trailblazers: Snow Leopards Cross Borders, Deserts, Rivers
Data from camera traps and GPS collars show endangered snow leopards dispersing to distant mountain ranges across stretches of deserted steppe, swimming across streams and rivers considered impossible to cross, and freely passing country borders.
Turning the Tide: Mongolian Conservationists Create a Future for Snow Leopards
The snow leopard is under threat of extinction. But a local grassroots organization in Mongolia is showing a possible path toward the future for this endangered cat.
Stunning Snow Leopard Photos from Kyrgyzstan
Hidden camera traps help researchers count snow leopards and provide the rest of us with spectacular glimpses of the world’s most elusive big cat!
Upgrades at Shamshy Wildlife Sanctuary
The log cabin at Shamshy Wildlife Sanctuary, the former hunting concession we’re co-managing with the Kyrgyz government as a protected area, receives a much-needed upgrade this month. Once finished, it will serve as an eco-education center and base camp for the rangers.
Pilot Survey Reveals Rich Biodiversity in Kinnaur, India
India team finds snow leopards and a healthy population of prey in a stretch of the Himalayas that hadn’t been surveyed before. Camera trap images also reveal brown bears, leopard cats, jungle cats and macaques.
To Protect Endangered Carnivores, We Must Also Protect Livestock
A conservation catch 22: Increasing the number wild prey animals is key for healthy snow leopard populations. But it doesn’t solve the problem of livestock predation – on the contrary.