We’ve been featured in TidBITS, an online newsletter and website devoted to Mac users. Author Doug McLean interviewed Executive Director Brad Rutherford, and there’s a great section in the article called “What Could Apple Do?” Check out the article here.
News & Stories
An Uplink from Saikhan
If you look carefully, you’ll see that we did get a single uplink from Saikhan’s collar (a green dot near the “O” in “Mountains”). It came in on December 8th, and it looks like he may have visited a site where Aztai (yellow) was on a kill back on December 2nd/3rd.
Trap camera pictures from India
Here are two pictures that were sent to us recently by our India Program Director, Dr. Charu Mishra. These are from our ongoing trap camera work in Spiti, led by student Rishi Sharma.
Aztai's territory
If you compare these two maps, it looks very much like Aztai is “patrolling” his home range; he’s making regular visits to the edge, marking the boundaries of his territory. If we overlay the boundaries of his core home-range (derived from the locations we’ve been collecting over the past year), you really get a sense …
Reporting illegal trade or sale of snow leopard parts
Recently, we were contacted about the possible sale of a snow leopard fur shawl online. This prompted us to look into actions you can take if you discover similar situations. Please understand that it is very important to first confirm whether the item you see is indeed snow leopard, and that we are by no …
Aztai circles the perimeter
Attached is an updated map with recent locations from our radio-collared cats. We’re having just a bit of a problem getting the satellite feed form Tsagaan and Saikhan’s collars, but we’re confident they are still storing data. Aztai (yellow), on the other hand, is happily going in circles around our base camp.
Shonkhor's beeline back
Once again this week is mostly about Shonkhor. As you’ll recall from last week, Shonkhor had headed towards some of the rocky outcrops on the outskirts of western Toson Bumba. He then headed north to check out a few additional small outcrops before making a ~23 km (15 mile) beeline back to Toson Bumba in …
Inspiring the Next Generation of Conservationists
The Trust recently released Engaging Students in Conservation: Protecting the Endangered Snow Leopard. This interdisciplinary set of teaching lessons was developed in collaboration with Facing the Future. It was designed for students in 5th-8th grade, and is available for free. Click here to download the 7 Mb PDF file Our India team has also been …
The story of Itgel
On July 5, 2009, we placed a GPS radio collar on a snow leopard nicknamed Itgel (which means “Hope” in Mongolian). Itgel suffered a serious leg injury from a wolf trap set by a herder and we collared him in order to monitor his recovery from, or loss to, his injuries. For nearly two months, …
Climate Change and Snow Leopards in China
Aside from a few rough estimates of habitat and population size, almost nothing is known about the distribution, relative abundance, or population trends of snow leopards in China. A new Google Challenge Grant from the Google.org Fund of Tides Foundation will enable the Trust to improve this situation. The grant is funding analysis to create …