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 means the final authority on this matter. That said, here is some advice we found: In 1975, snow leopards were listed in Appendix I of CITES (the Convention on International …
News & Stories
DNA: A Key to Unlock the Secrets of an Elusive Cat
Originally published in Snow Leopard Tracks, Summer 2006 Advances in genetics have resulted in a valuable new technique to estimate snow leopard populations. This is done by analyzing the DNA from samples of wild snow leopard scat and shed hairs that are collected in the field. The Trust has been working with Dr. Lisette Waits of …
Saikhan and Shonkor nearly meet
Christmas came a bit early this week. We had several uplinks from Saikhan’s collar (green), in addition to two hits from Shonkhor’s collar (purple) – a day apart at the same site. Although the number of uplinks is not sufficient to provide much information on recent movements, it does confirm that both cats are still …
What Could Apple Do?
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.
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 …