by Sibylle on July 20, 2010
Republic of Altai coat of arms. Altai is in Siberia, the southern most part of Russia on the border with Mongolia.
While I’m deep in the Altai Mountains in Siberia, walking remote and treacherous valley paths searching for signs of snow leopard, (‘Irbis’ in the local Altai language) here’s a bit more info about this spectacular location.
UNESCO, (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) recognises this area as special and has inscribed the Golden Mountains of Altai on the World Heritage List.
The Altai Mountains lie at the edge of 4 countries – a beautiful but stark region where Kazakhstan, China, Russia and Mongolia meet. According to UNESCO, the Altai is home to 3,726 registered plant species and 680 animal species. The few remaining snow leopards feed on Ibex or wild mountain goat that graze in the lush green meadows.
The herder communities knew snow leopards centuries ago as can be seen by petroglyphs, ancient rock carvings found here. But today most people have never seen one.
Russia’s snow leopard population is estimated at only 150–200, so every animal is important. Conservation projects focus on making the live animal more valuable to the local communities than income from body parts like pelts and bones. But that’s difficult when an Altai shepherd earns about 1,600-3,100 Rubles (US$50-100) per month.
Some of the local people in the Argut Valley of Altai took part in a snow leopard survey in 2007, tracking and recording pugmarks, feces and other signs. International researchers are using herder and villager local knowledge and together work to protect the 5 or so cats found. The Russian government is also taking a role with the establishment of Sailugemsky National Park (80,000 hectares), located in the Argut River basin in February 2010.
I’ll be back from the Altai in a week, so check out my Altai diary to read if we found snow leopards.
by Sibylle on July 13, 2010
Unfortuantely these Zoo bred snow leopards are not able to be released into wild.
Could that be a solution to endangered cats in the wild? So many zoos are now breeding snow leopards successfully but unfortunately at this time it just can’t be done.
One scientist who’s done a lot of research to see if captive bred animals can be reintroduced into the wild is Kristen Jule of the University of Exeter in England. She studied over 2,000 captive animals (all carnivores) that were released but unfortunately found that less than a third of them survived even the first 6 months.
No snow leopards have been released and studied but Jule did study lynxes and panthers, also big cats. “The captive-born animals are at a particular disadvantage because they have less fear. They’re more likely to be in risky situations and are often left without the hunting skills or disease immunity they need to thrive in the wild,” she says.
Jule doesn’t rule out future success but she believes we have to do a lot more training before release is successful. She believes the animals must be reared by their own parents and not humans as often happens in zoos. Also they need to be able to learn to hunt, and this is probably the hardest thing to do in a zoo environment where feeding live prey is contentious and no longer done. Other skills captive animals usually lack is the ability to find shelter for themselves, without which in the wild, they often die. And then with snow leopards of course there is the added problem of finding a safe habitat for them without herder predation or poaching.
Kristen Jule says “the next step is for scientists, conservationists and animal welfare groups to develop guidelines to help captive animals prepare for a new life in the wild.”
So it seems we’re still a long way from being able to do this successfully with our beloved snow leopards. Even more reason to focus on supporting those that still exist in the wild.
