Monitoring Argali, Sighting Snow Leopards and Sharing Tea with Herders.

Monitoring Argali, Sighting Snow Leopards and Sharing Tea with Herders.
Follow field researcher Sherry Young, Wildlife Ranger Urmat Sokolov and their horses Padiera and Caramel as they cross frozen rivers and climb precipitous slopes to install camera traps to monitor snow leopards and their prey in Kyrgyzstan’s Sarychat Ertash Reserve.
Check out the latest camera trap footage showing one of our most beloved snow leopards, Anu, having a drink at a water hole with her almost fully grown cub.
Dr. Kulbhushansingh (“Kullu”) Suryawanshi, Senior Scientist and India Program Director for the Snow Leopard Trust, explains how much of a bias there is in existing population studies, and why it matters for the future of this endangered cat.
Existing snow leopard population assessment studies tend to be conducted in the best habitats and cover areas that are too small to be representative of larger landscapes. This leads to inflated population estimates.
A camera trap study in South Gobi’s Khorkh mountain range confirmed the presence of snow leopards along with lynx, ibex and argali.
Around 60% of the world’s snow leopard habitat are in China. Yet, in China as in other countries, robust population estimates to guide snow leopard conservation efforts remain scarce. But there are efforts underway to change that – most recently through two workshops on survey and analysis methods held in Beijing.
To identify the culprit, snow leopard researcher Devika Rathore channels her inner Sherlock in this field tale from Lahaul, India.
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.
This fall, Snow Leopard Trust researchers have set up camera traps across the entire Kyrgyz Ala-Too mountain range to see how many snow leopards live in this habitat near the country’s capital, Bishkek. Research Associate Suraiya Luecke shares some of the team’s experiences from the field with us.