Snow Leopards in China

I just came across two interesting blogs: one by Dr. Philip Riordan, a wildlife biologist doing some snow leopard research in China; and one by Josh, a English teacher in Xinjiang. I thought it might be good to reiterate how important China is to the future of snow leopards. China is home to the world’s largest snow leopard population–estimated at (at least) 2,000 individuals.

Snow leopards occur in six provinces including Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Xinjiang. (They are also found in Tibet).  The importance of China to snow leopard conservation is almost impossible to overstate. Name a mountain range that snow leopards are found in, now see if that range stretches into China. The Altai, Tein Shan, Kun Lun, Pamirs, Hindu Kush, Karakoram and Himalayas all do. Now name a country where snow leopards live and see if it borders China. Ten out of eleven do, only Uzbekistan does not share a border with China. The immense country probably has 60% of occupied snow leopard habitat within its borders, and most importantly, half or more of all wild snow leopards spend part or all of their lives in China.

The Snow Leopard Trust recently launched a study in the far west province of Xinjiang  to try and estimate numbers of the big cats in a reserve on the border of Kyrgzystan. The Tomur Nature Reserve was considered a potentially important one for the cats, and our study showed that was true. Using camera traps and genetic fingerprinting methods with feces, we identified over 8 leopards using just one valley on the reserve edge. One park is a tiny fraction of snow leopard range in the country, but you must start somewhere!