March 2010

Poems and paintings of the Princess of Snow

March 18, 2010 Bhutan

Karma Wangchuk from Bhutan, the tiny Himalayan “Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon” sent me some beautiful paintings and poems about snow leopards. Karma teaches English at the College of Education in Paro, one of Bhutan’s main towns. He’s a keen nature lover and loves cooking, trekking, travelling, drama, dance, gardening and music. He has contributed [...]

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Mother and cubs photographed for first time in Tuva

March 17, 2010 Russia

The first Russian-Mongolian research expedition to study snow leopard numbers in the Republic of Tuva ( tiny republic in the south of Russia) took the first ever photographs of snow leopards in that region. The team found 14 tracks of the cats on the Tsagan-Shibetu ridge in the western part of the country just in [...]

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снежного барса – saving snow leopards of Kazakhstan

March 16, 2010 Kazakhstan

Oleg Loginov is a snow leopard zoologist, passionate about saving the last remaining endangered cats in Kazakhstan. Last month he contacted me with wishes for a Happy year of the Snow Leopard – something he’s working for. Oleg lives in Ust-Kamenogorsk near Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan. He was formerly employed at Alma-Ata zoo in [...]

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Zoo pioneers new method of snow leopard artificial insemination

March 11, 2010 Snow leopards in Zoos

Potter Park Zoo (in Michigan, USA) officials believe they completed one of the world’s first artificial insemination of a snow leopard without surgery or anesthesia. Staff worked with 11 year old Serena for about a year, using behavioral training, to get her into a position where she could be inseminated. Zoo veterinarian Tara Harrison said, [...]

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Avatar’s Na’avi people inspired by snow leopard eyes

March 11, 2010 Saving snow leopards

John Rosengrant, from Legacy Effects, the team that did the special effects for Avatar said in an interview that the look of Pandora’s Na’avi people, with their huge eyes, was based on the eyes of the snow leopard. The team was inspired by snow leopard eyes and then experimented with the color, finally choosing a [...]

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Sad end

March 8, 2010 Afghanistan

As humans we’re always looking for the positive in a story. We have to look pretty deep to get a positive from this horrible story from Afghanistan this week. Some conservationists are saying it shows that local Afghans are more protective of snow leopards now – lets hope so. But the sad death of this [...]

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Herdsmen in China sentenced to prison for killing snow leopard

March 8, 2010 China

BBC News has reported the following story. “Two herdsmen have been sentenced to eight and 10 years in prison for killing a snow leopard in northwest China’s Xinjiang region. China’s state news agency Xinhua quoted local authorities saying the men had set a trap after wild animals had been preying on their sheep. When a [...]

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"Ghost of a chance" snow leopard painting

March 6, 2010 Saving snow leopards

I wanted to feature another excellent wild life artist, this time Canadian, Michael Pape. As a keen conservation supporter, Michael has created some magnificent works of art and through this work raised funds for organisations like the Canadian Endangered Species Fund, Ducks Unlimited Canada,  Snow Leopard Trust,  Amur (Siberian) Leopard, Tiger Conservation Program and the [...]

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Indian Army rescues injured snow leopard

March 5, 2010 India

Sketchy news about an injured snow leopard in Ladakh, in the Indian Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir. Apparently the Indian Army has rescued an injured snow leopard trapped near Tangtse, a tiny village about 50 km east of the capital, Leh. One report said the snow leopard was hiding behind a big stone while [...]

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"A rare and precious sight" Tom McCarthy reflects on seeing a snow leopard and her three cubs in the wild

March 4, 2010 Snow leopard habitat

Tom Mc Carthy is Director of Snow Leopard Programs for Panthera (the conservation agency started in 2006 to protect the world’s 36 species of wild cats). He’s currently working on a long term snow leopard project in Mongolia but recently wrote about an magical moment 12 years ago when he saw an elusive snow leopard [...]

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