A new study shows that climate change is threatening to disrupt or fragment large parts of the snow leopard’s mountain habitat. There are three core habitat zones that appear to have the potential to be safe refugia for the species though.
Category: Research
Understanding Snow Leopard Home Ranges
Snow Leopard Trust researcher Örjan Johansson recently published a groundbreaking study where he could show that most Protected Areas in the cats’ habitat are too small to hold viable snow leopard populations. In this article, he explains how he and his team calculated snow leopard home ranges using data from cats they tracked with GPS collars.
Protected Areas Are Too Small for Snow Leopards
40% of Protected Areas in Asia Are Unable to Sustain Even One Pair of Breeding Snow Leopards
Managing Man’s Best Friend
Ajay Bijoor, a project associate in our India team, has written a wonderful article about his experiences with the management of feral dogs in the Transhimalayan landscape of Spiti, India. We’re reposting it here with the kind permission of Ajay and Current Conservation magazine.
Enthusiasm and Progress at Snow Leopard Conservation Forum in China
An expert meeting held in Urumqi highlighted the enormous progress that’s been made in snow leopard research and conservation in China over the past years. Shan Shui, Snow Leopard Trust and Panthera have worked in partnership in China since 2009.
Rare Footage of Pallas’s Cat Cubs
The Pallas’s cat is a small, little known wild cat species living in the steppes and mountains of Central Asia. Through a new research initiative “PICA” (Pallas’s Cat International Conservation Alliance) launched earlier this year, we’re hoping to better understand this feline. The project is still in its early stages, but it has already produced some outstanding, rare footage of Pallas’s cats, including video of wild cubs.
Understanding Dogs to Protect Cats
Feral dogs have been seen chasing snow leopards and bears away from their prey. Growing populations of free-ranging dogs are becoming a real threat to wildlife in many parts of the snow leopard’s range. Liu Mingyu, a researcher in China, is tracking dogs with GPS collars to better understand their behavior – and eventually address the threat they pose.
Snow Leopard Signposts
Check out candid footage from a ‘snow leopard signpost’ – or, as some would call it, a cat communications center.
Guess what? Nobody knows how many snow leopards there are
Due to their elusive nature, snow leopards are extremely difficult to count. Despite great efforts and technological advances, we still don’t have reliable population numbers. Until that changes, these endangered cats are best served by a very conservative approach.
Statement of Concern on Snow Leopard Population Estimates
We are happy to see the comprehensive book on snow leopards and their biology that was published earlier this summer (1). However, a group of authors state in a chapter of this book (2) that the global snow leopard population may be significantly higher than prevailing estimates. This claim and its implications, which have been …