News & Stories

The Science and Art of Collaring Snow Leopards

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)

How Bees and Trees Protect Snow Leopards

One hundred fifty honey bee hives were successfully delivered to their new homes in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. Relocating the bees was a challenge, as Benazir, our Project Assistant, shares, “The delivery process was so nerve-wracking because we were transporting live creatures over a long distance. The delivery kept getting postponed due to rainy weather. To add to the complexity, honey bee families are supposed to be delivered at night so they can orient themselves once they are settled. Due to the specific challenges and risks involved, we did not sleep for two nights, constantly checking on the location of the truck with the bee families.”

A journey in conservation to the 2022 Whitley Gold Award

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.