A recently published paper by our colleague Dr. LingYun Xiao explores how Tibetan herders are able to coexist with snow leopards in their shared environment. The study was part of her PhD work to understand the relationship between snow leopards, blue sheep (a main prey species), livestock and human land use.
I remember clearly my first experience joining our scientists to collar snow leopards in Mongolia. I was with Orjan Johansson, who had just been hired to begin our long-term ecological telemetry study on snow leopards. It would be the first time in a decade that we had decided to collar snow leopards as an organization. (this story was shared by Jennifer Snell Rullman, Snow Leopard Trust)
He once considered snow leopards a threat to his family’s livelihood. Today, he is a dedicated advocate, protecting Mongolia’s most studied population of snow leopards, including several females who have successfully raised multiple generations.
Just how many snow leopards live in Tost Nature Reserve? Each year our researchers examine camera trap images and collaring data to determine the number of residents in this important snow leopard habitat.
This is a story about women leading snow leopard conservation shared by Deepshikha Sharma from the Snow Leopard Trust’s India Program based at the Nature Conservation Foundation. Shen, an initiative of Snow Leopard Enterprises in Spiti Valley, is transforming conservation.
A huge thank you to our supporters around the world who came out to make #Strides4SnowLeopards this June!
When Snow Leopard Trust Executive Director Dr. Charu Mishra began his conservation work in the late 1990s, the top-down practice of “fortress conservation” was the norm. Entire communities were evicted from territories to protect wildlife. (An estimated 130 million ‘conservation refugees’ have been displaced by conservation efforts worldwide.) In Charu’s view, fortress conservation is morally wrong.
Snow leopard, scientific pioneer, trailblazer, super mom. Dagina has held quite a few monikers over the years – and done more to further our research than perhaps any other individual snow leopard in the wild to date.
What do these numbers mean to our research? Let’s start with snow leopards. In this case, 95 snow leopards does not actually mean 95 snow leopards. The ‘numbers’ refer to photos or independent photo capture events, to be more precise.
In 2021, park rangers, environmental specialists and local citizens in Kyrgyzstan, intercepted poachers with pelts and bones of snow leopards and other species bound for illegal wildlife markets. Many mountain ungulates were also confiscated, most of which were illegally hunted for bushmeat. The illegal trade in endangered species is a significant threat to snow leopards and their wild prey. This success story reinforces how conservation partnerships can help ensure a future for snow leopards.
