Dog and snow leopard encounter in Tajikistan photographed by villagers.
Another amazing story of snow leopard encounter with dog. This time with incredible photo. This report from Stefan Michel, wildlife expert with the Nature Protection Team in Tajikistan.
“In Zong, Wakhan valley in Tajikistan, villagers reported attacks by snow leopards on livestock. Once a dog defended the herd, the snow leopard ran after the dog, which escaped to the herder. The snow leopard even touched the herder, who was – understandable – shocked.
Our project team had difficulties to believe the story. So we provided the villagers with a digital camera. The result – you can see! Now a project application for predator proof barns is under preparation. The villagers will soon apply to the agencies in charge for assigning the area to them as community based conservancy to develop tourism and sustainable hunting.”
With more and more villagers coming into snow leopard habitat across all range countries the likelihood of dog and snow leopard encounters will increase. Stories to date suggest sometimes the snow leopards loose prey to dogs and other times they are able to defend it. In any case the sort of community program Stefan describes above is important to stop encounters from ending in harm to either animal, dog or cat. (Photos courtesy of Tanya Rosen and Stefan Michel.)
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