This photo was orginally claimed by Xinhua News Agency (China) as one taken by a local amateur photographer but it was in fact taken by a camera trap by NGO Plateau Perspectives. (c) Dr Marc Foggin 2010.
Recently I cited a China news story from Xinhua News Agency about a photo of a wild snow leopard taken by a local amateur photographer. Turns out the Xinhua story wasn’t correct and in fact the photo was taken by Dr Marc Foggin, a Canadian conservation biologist and director of the NGO Plateau Perspectives (PP), who has been working in Qinghai Province (China) for the past 15 years
Dr Foggin this week wrote to “Saving Snow Leopards” website and we’d like to give him and his team full credit for the photos and also the conservation work they are doing. Dr Foggin doesn’t know how Xinhua got the photos but in any case, thanks for contacting us and we’re happy to correct the misconception, on our website at least.
The photos were captured when the PP team “set up a dozen camera traps in western Zhiduo County (in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture) on 31 Dec 2009 – 2 Jan 2010 and the photograph in question …was taken on 8 January 2010 at 4:44am.”
Dr Foggin writes that the camera traps are “part of our long-term, community-based snow leopard conservation program – with the local Tibetan herder community, as well as the Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve” and the data from the photos serves to “supplement Tibetan herders’ direct observations and records.”
Plateau Perspectives also has other photos of snow leopards from the camera traps and we hope to follow progress of their snow leopard conservation program in the future.
You can read more about Plateau Perspectives, their background and work in the 2009 Annual report. Read more about the Sanjianyuan National Nature Reserve.
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