Update from the Field

Update from the Field
April 2014
Through our Long-Term Ecological Study (LTES) in the Tost region of Mongolia, we are learning a lot about the
lives of wild snow leopards. Below are some exciting updates directly from our Long-Term Study along with news
from other important snow leopard range countries.
Following Devekh
For the first fortnight, Devekh was patrolling the Tost and Tosonbumba Mountains making an
oblique shape. He did not patrol the south eastern or the north western parts of the mountains.
However, in the second fortnight, he seemed to have changed his movement patterns and
confined himself to Tosonbumba. He has not been to the Tost Mountains for nearly two weeks.
His ranging patterns continue to cover about 300 sq km area every week.
MONGOLIA
Keeping Cats Out May Keep Them Safe
Working with herders, our team in Mongolia is studying how to best prevent predators like the snow leopard from attacking
livestock - a key to a peaceful coexistence of cats and local communities. The first fences have already been built.
Livestock losses to predator attacks can be devastating to herder families in snow leopard habitat across Central Asia; and
they remain a primary source of human-wildlife conflicts. Through interventions like our community-based livestock insurance and vaccination programs, we've found ways to help local herders better absorb the financial impact of livestock losses
- and people's attitudes towards the cats have improved as a consequence. In order to foster an even stronger acceptance
of snow leopards among local herders, we're also working on preventing livestock losses from happening in the first place.
Gustaf Samelius, the Trust's Assistant Director of Science and Conservation, is in Mongolia's South Gobi region working with
our local team and communities in Tost to figure out how to best do that. They've launched a pilot program, helping 10
families to build new fences around their nighttime corrals. "Building fences seems like an obvious idea, and in many ways,
it is. But we want to make sure we're building the right type of fence at the lowest possible cost", Gustaf says, "so we're
testing different techniques now."
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Pg. 1
Update from the Field
Country Highlights
Mongolia Continued…
Dr. Jens Karlsson, an expert on preventing livestock losses from
the Wildlife Damage Center in Sweden, joined our team in the
South Gobi and shared his experiences at a kickoff meeting with
local communities as well as authorities in Tost. "The herders
were eager to participate in the study", Gustaf says, "and the
local governor expressed his support as well."
Communities Make Decisions
It's one of the principles of the Trust to always involve local
communities into any decisions that need to be made as part of
a community-based conservation program - and the selection of
the ten families who were to participate in the pilot study was a
case in point: "Our local team members, Chimgee and Sumbee,
explained some of the criteria for a family to be a part of the
study", Gustaf says, "but then, the herders who were at the meeting selected the participants themselves. It was
amazing to see that they even suggested some families that weren't present themselves."
The team spent another 5 days in Tost, building the first two fences at the camps of two herders, Daowa and Burun.
"Building the fences was lots of fun", Gustaf says. "The best part about it was hearing that Daowa and Burun were happy
with the work and thought that the fences will help reducing livestock losses."
Snow Leopard Trust and Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation are very grateful to Dr. Jens Karlsson and the Wildlife
Damage Center in Sweden for their help to make this a great study and for contributing with their extensive experience
of using fences as mean of
reducing livestock losses.
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Update from the Field
Country Highlights
CHINA
Mountain Ghost
Adapted by a report submitted by Lingyun Xiao
Suojia, a township located west of Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve, is a
place where the wildest nature remains. People moved to this county merely
50 years ago due to an expanding population in other areas. However, the
strong winds and cruel coldness of this township are not the most conducive
conditions for human inhabitation, which is why we can have numerous wildlife
living there, including the mysterious ‘mountain ghost’ snow leopard.
Even though spring is on its way in most places of the plateau, winter persists in
Suojia as if it will never go away. Our first day was quite sunny and the low
temperature didn’t bother us too much. However, as night fell, the wind began
to howl, sounding as if thousands of monsters were shouting together. We
struggled to crawl out of our sleeping bags the next morning, knowing it will be
a tough day out in the field. After a whole day fighting with the wind and snow,
we succeeded in setting out several camera traps and also observed a lot of
animal tracks, including those of two brown bears which led to dens.
This kind of weather is hard for us, but it’s ideal for snow leopards that are
looking to hunt. All day we kept our eyes busy, hoping to witness a snow
leopard hunting for wild prey. We had almost given up hope when we caught
a glimpse of two figures sneaking along a cliff. The big tails could
undoubtedly only belong to one animal: the mountain ghost.
Slowly the pair climbed up, and just then we saw the third one! A snow leopard walked quite elegantly in front of
where we were. It crossed the icy river, and didn’t even bother to give us a glance. Snow leopards are just like this:
always keep their own pace, as confident as a king. We thought it had to be a mother, since the first two who crossed,
waiting for this last one to join them. They
reunited on the slope, and beyond our expectation,
they began to walk toward us. Only when we
spotted the body of a dead yak on the other side of
river bank did we realized what is attracting them.
They walked very cautiously and finally stopped to
wait. We prepared to leave not wanting to
interrupt the family dinner, when our Tibetan field
assistant, Douxiujia, noticed all of the three leopards looked up. Suddenly, the snow leopard who
we assumed to be the mother jumped up and
crossed the river again. She walked along the valley as one of the younger cats jumped up and ran
after her, disappearing behind a big rock. The
young cat hesitated, and just then we followed its
gaze and saw a forth snow leopard walking down
the slope. From the face and shape we guessed it
was a mid-age male, the real king of the territory. The big male didn’t seem to be bothered by the presence of the
other cats and just kept on moving towards yak carcass on the river bank. We never did see the female cat and her
possible cub ever emerge from their original hiding post. This is the first time in the field we observed the interaction
among different snow leopards. It was interesting to see intimidations not only coming from other species, but from
inside the population as well. I guess as a snow leopard, it would say, I’m just a big cat struggling for everyday life.
Pg. 3
Update from the Field
Country Highlights
PAKISTAN
Environmental Education Workshop
Lack of awareness about the ecological importance of snow leopards and associated mountain ecosystems among
the communities sharing these alpine ecosystems with snow leopards in the northern part of the country is one of
the major threats to the survival of the species in Pakistan. The situation demands focused and effective
environmental education and mass awareness paradigms to sensitize and inculcate sense of stewardship for snow
leopard and other wildlife - especially in the youth and schoolchildren. In the long run, this mass awareness
enables communities to participate in the conservation efforts with informed attitudes and authoritative manner.
As environmental education and advocacy for wildlife conservation
constitutes one of the major objectives of the Snow Leopard Foundation
(SLF), a three day training in environmental education was conducted at
Gilgit from April 5-7, 2014. The training was resourced by renowned
environmental educationist and biodiversity specialist Professor Z B Mirza,
and a total of 14 participants had attended the training. Out of these 14
participants, 12 were from different schools of SLF program area while 2
were from Parks and Wildlife department Gilgit-Baltistan. The training was
inaugurated by Mr. Walayat Noor, Conservator Parks and Wildlife
Department Gilgit-Baltistan, while Madam Azra Praveen, Director Education (Academics) Gilgit-Baltistan had conferred certificates to participants
on concluding day.
INDIA
Activities are progressing slowly but steadily, in India, as
they do during every winter. In Ladakh, our staff
conducted a meeting with teachers from schools where we
run the Himalayan Nature Club (HNC). Our field staff gave
the teachers a presentation of our work across Ladakh and
Spiti. They also finalized the schedule for this year’s
activities that will be carried out by Himalayan Nature Club
(HNC) at their respective schools. The teachers themselves
will conduct two nature education activities with the help
of specially created workbooks in the schools while our
coordinators will lead one activity in the coming year. The
team also decided on dates for upcoming nature education
camps. Our team also held a meeting to follow-up on our
conservation work that took place in Rong and Gya-Miru
valleys in April. As winter comes to an end, we are now
preparing to begin corral improvement work in several villages. The insurance program in Gya village has been
successfully running for the last seven years, and we held discussions with the committee to introduce new members.
In Spiti, our field staff has been busy completing a livestock census across all 40 villages. During the census, we document
the cause of death of livestock in the past year. This exercise has been extremely valuable for us in understanding some of
the emerging threats in the landscape. It was through a similar survey that we were able to assess the magnitude of
damage to livestock caused by feral dogs—which was greater than that caused by snow leopards and wolves. With the
data now gathered, we will shortly by analyzing it to look for emerging trends.
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2014
Acknowledgments
Collaborators
Mongolia & Long-Term Ecological
Study
Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation
Swedish University of Agricultural
Sciences
Mongolia Ministry of Nature Environment
and Green Development
Mongolia Academy of Science
Kyrgyzstan
Snow Leopard Foundation Kyrgyzstan
Ministry of Environmental Protection
Institute of Biology
Sarychat-Ertash State Nature Reserve
China
ShanShui Conservation Center
Panthera
Beijing University
Pakistan
Snow Leopard Foundation Pakistan
Directorate of Khunjerab National Park
Gilgit-Baltistan Forest & Wildlife
Department
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Wildlife
Department
India
Union Ministry of Envrionment and
Forests
Himachal Pradesh Forest Department
Climate-Change & Water Security
Initiative
WWF-US
USAID
Partners
Acacia
Conservation
Fund
Global Forum
World Bank Global Tiger Initiative
WWF-US
USAID
UNDP
Office of the President of Kyrgyzstan
NABU
Snow Leopard Conservancy
GEF
SLN
Snow Leopard Network
Snow Leopard Conservancy
Zoo Sponsors
Micke Grove Zoo
Midnight Sun AAZK Chapter
Mill Mountain Zoo
Miller Park Zoo
Milwaukee County Zoo
National Zoo & Aquarium Conservation Team
Niabi Zoo
Oklahoma City Zoo
Orsa Bjornpark
Parco Faunistico Le Cornelle
Peoria Zoo
Philadelphia Zoo
Phoenix Zoo
Pittsburgh Zoo
Plock Zoo
Potawatomi Zoo
Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure
Sacramento Zoo
San Antonio Zoo & Aquarium
Santa Barbara Zoo
Akron Zoological Park
Alaska Zoo
Albuquerque BioPark
Association Zoologique d'Asson
Billabong Zoo
Binder Park Zoo
Blank Park Zoo
Buffalo Zoological Gardens
Calgary Zoo
Cape May County Zoo
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Cougar Mountain Zoo
Edmonton Valley Zoo
Friends of the Big Bear Alpine Zoo
Great Plains Zoo
Jungle Cat World
Lake Superior Zoological Gardens
Lincoln Park Zoo
Linton Zoological Gardens
Memphis Zoo
Sequoia Park Zoo
Sunset Zoo
Tautphaus Park Zoo
The Wildcat Sanctuary
Toronto Zoo
Turtle Back Zoo
Wildlife Heritage Foundation
Zoo Basel
Zoo Boise
Zoo de Granby
Zoo Dresden
Zoo Liberec
Zoo New England
Zoo Zurich
ZooParc de Tregomeur
A full list is on the Partner page of our website
along with info on how your can become a
sponsor.
Foundation Sponsors
CGMK
Foundation
EBR
Foundation
Leonard X. Bosack & Bette M. Kruger
Charitable Foundation, Inc.
Hamill Family Foundation
JPMorgan Chase Foundation
Keith & Mary Kay McCaw Family Foundation
Laguntza Foundation
Overton & Katharine Dennis Fund
Renaissance Charitable Foundation, Inc.
Elmyra Felburn Schiller
Irrevocable Trust
Moore Family
Foundation
Felburn
Foundation
Nysether Family
Foundation
The Grace Jones Richardson Trust
The Hans & Elizabeth Wolf Foundation
The Lawrence Foundation
The Melkus Family Foundation
The Seattle Foundation
Valerie Beth Schwartz Foundation
Fredman Family
Foundation Inc
Snow Leopard Trust UK
& The Edrington Group
White Pine
Fund
Chicago Board of Trade Endangered Species
Fund
GreaterGood Charity
International Foundation
International Fund for Animal Welfare/ EWCL
Class 5 Project
Thank you also to our incredible major donors, who give generously to make these programs possible.
A full list of our major donors can be found in our Annual Report.