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Explanation:
(Continuing the adventure from last
week's EPOW ... )
It did not take long to sight
our first snow leopards!
Shortly after arriving at our
campsite, one of the local guides informed us that a snow leopard had been
sighted in a side valley near camp and that we would be going there
"after we drink some tea." He explained that snow leopards
typically sleep during the day and therefore the lack of urgency was justified
despite the fact that we were all extremely anxious to get going!
We were not disappointed; an easy,
half-hour hike brought us to a hillside where a group of observers had already
gathered with spotting scopes and telephoto lenses to observe a female snow
leopard with a cub on a rocky ridge, approximately 400 yards (366 meters)
away.
An example of the amazing camouflage of a snow leopard in its environment.
This snow leopard defied
convention however, and after awhile started to stalk a group of bharal
across the valley, surely due to the need to feed her young cub. The
stalk proved unsuccessful, though, due to the sharp eyes and senses of the
bharal, and the snow leopard eventually returned to the ridge to await another
opportunity.
Over the next five days, our group
observed three more snow leopards at distances of 250 yards (230 meters) to
1320 yards (1207 meters) for as long as six to seven hours. We were also
serenaded late one night by vocalizations from four different snow leopards
close to camp, an event that occurs only during the winter breeding
season. The attached photos are all from our final, and closest,
sighting from across the main stream valley of another female snow
leopard.
A snow leopard on the move on steep terrain.
Although the snow leopard
population in this part of the Himalayas was apparently secure, overall these
cats face a variety of threats to survival despite the fact their remote,
mountain habitats offer some degree of protection compared to species like
tigers which occur in lowland habitats much closer to human
populations.
Threats
to snow leopards include poaching for skins, bones and body parts;
retribution killing by livestock herders who have suffered predation losses of
domestic animals; reduction in prey populations from competition for forage
with domestic animals like sheep, goats and yaks; and habitat fragmentation
and degradation.
The future is far from secure for
the "Gray Ghost", and focused conservation efforts will be necessary
to ensure that this flagship
species will remain as an important part of Asian mountain ecology and
biodiversity.
Efforts to protect snow leopard prey species such as Asiatic ibex
from overgrazing by domestic livestock are important to
ensuring the long-term survival of this iconic species.
NOTE: I have been deliberately
vague about the exact location of our snow leopard expedition due to the
recent, dramatic increase on snow leopard winter tourism and the associated
impacts as mentioned in Part 1.
I apologize for this evasiveness but hope that readers will understand.
Efforts are underway to
consider some restrictions on visitor numbers and human impacts at this site,
and I am hopeful that in the future a well-managed tourism framework will be
implemented that will achieve a workable balance between snow leopard viewing
and protection of this fragile, mountain environment.
Acknowledgments:
I would like to thank Amit Sankhala for his help arranging the snow leopard
trip, and to Rodney Jackson for sharing insights about both snow leopards and
bio-politics with me. I also thank Allan, Marcel and Richard for their
willingness to make me an honorary member of "Team Europe" during
the trip. Special thanks to our local guides and support crew; without
their help snow leopard sightings would not have been possible.
- Tom Kogut
Information:
Snow leopard populations are plummeting:
http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0103-santana-snow-leopards.html
Bagchi, S. and C. Mishra. 2006. Living with large
carnivores: Predation on livestock by snow leopard (Uncia uncia). J.
Zool. 268:217-224.
Jackson, Rodney M. and Raghunandan S. Chundawat. 2013.
Chapter 31, Snow Leopard. In Mammals of South Asia Vol. I, AJT Johnsingh and
N. Manjrekar, editors, Universities Press (India) pvt. Ltd, 614 pp.
Schaller, George B. 1998. Wildlife of the Tibetan Steppe.
Univ. of Chicago Press, 373 pp.
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