Scanning for snow leopard prey like wild goats and sheep in the Altai mountains, southern most part of Russia. Photo by Nancy Miller.

Seeing a snow leopard in the wild must be the ultimate experience for big cat lovers. Sadly it wasn’t to be for me, the animal remained as mystical and elusive as ever. But there were so many other exciting animals and experiences during this Biosphere Expeditions research trip in the remote Altai Mountains of southern Siberia that made it worthwhile.

I’m tired, have aching muscles and am covered in millions of mosquito bites, but – I would not have missed it for anything! Great work done by the team and Volodya (Vladimir Tytar) the Russian snow leopard researcher. You can read all about it in my Diary Seaching for Russia’s last snow leopards.

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.

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.

Altai mountains snow leopard habitat in Russia. Photo Wikipedia

After a frantic few days of packing and organising I’m finally flying out tonight for Moscow and then on to the Altai mountains on the edge of civilisation in Russia’s south, on the border of Mongolia. Along with eight others from around the globe, I’ll be walking the mountains with Volodya, a Russian biologist, studying these beautiful rare cats. Scanning the horizons for cats and their prey species wild goats and sheep, scanning under my boots for snow leopard poo and pug marks.

The expedition data will help predict the remaining resident numbers of snow leopards here and form the basis of community education and conservation programs with the local Altai villagers and herders. They sound like tough but charming people and I’m looking forward to meeting some of them.

Our group gets to sleep in small tents, so hopefully the night subzero temperatures of the last week will disappear by the time I get there.

I’ll be well and truly out of blog range in the Altai so it will be end of July that I’ll publish my diary here. Wish us luck! Stay tuned!

Meanwhile there will still be other posts added while I’m away.

Second collared female, Zaraa, little 'hedgehog', in the Mongolian study by the Snow Leopard Trust.

The most recent member of the collared gang of snow leopards in the Snow Leopard Trust’s Mongolia project has got a name. When she was captured, the team, in the style of true scientists, called her F2 (she only the second female collared in the study out of ten cats). But now she’s been officially named Zaraa, which means “hedgehog” in Mongolian and suits her as this cute photo shows. Follow the amazing and groundbreaking snow leopard study on the Trust’s Blog and learn more about Zaraa and the males that are being studied via high tech GPS collars. Zaraa will be  important to this study because the other female collared early on, lost her collar and the team didn’t get much data on her.

Mongolia‘s wilderness and mountain deserts are good habitat for rare snow leopards and many teams are working with local herder communities to protect the cats.

Fennec fox of Africa. Photo Wikipedia

Snow leopards have very small ears for the size of their heads and bodies. This is because ears on all animals, humans included, help lose body heat in cold weather. Because snow leopards live in such cold climates losing body heat is the last thing they want to do.

So I was intrigued this week when I read about a vet having this little fox, a Fennec fox as a patient. What extraordinary ears! They are the largest ears of any canids (dog family) and that’s because, you guessed it, Fennec foxes live in deserts in Africa in extreme heat. They need to lose body heat to survive.

Small eared snow leopard

As snow leopards are adapted to live in the freezing cold high altitudes of Central Asia these little foxes (they only weigh around 1 –2 kilos) have a fur coat, kidneys and ears adapted to hot deserts. Read more about Fennec foxes.

Majestic Shimbu, 20 year old snow leopard at Melbourne Zoo. Thanks to Glenn McColl for this photo.

Snow leopards in zoos live much longer than their wild counterparts. 20-year-old Shimbu, at Melbourne Zoo for example, is about twice the age she would have been in the wild. She gets more food than in the wild, and it’s better quality food. She lacks predators to harm and injure her, and she has great medical care when she needs it. But just like humans in old age, older zoo snow leopards can face health issues like arthritis, failing eyesight, cancer and kidney failure. In fact, zoo staff and scientists are still learning more about how to keep old snow leopards young as more and more of them thrive in well designed exhibits throughout the world.

Nowadays zoos have a team of people available to care for their ‘geriatric’ animals. Usually it’ll be the keepers who work with snow leopards on a daily basis who are the first to see signs of stiffness, soreness, slowing down, visible lumps etc. In most zoos the keepers call in the zoo veterinarian but they can also get help from other specialists like behavior experts, pathologists, dentists, ophthalmologists, cardiologists and geneticists.

This team then decides on the long-term health of the cat and what they think the quality of life will be. If the cat is still interested in food and its environment and enrichment activities, and has good mobility, the team may operate (for tumors for example) or treat with medications. For arthritis snow leopards are often given NSAIDs like Ibuprofen and they might also get Glucosamine and Chondroitin for joint health and perhaps steroid anti-inflammatories to manage pain.

18 year old snow leopard Ming Wah at San Francisco zoo has a ramp to help with her arthritis. Photo SF Zoo.

Making helpful adaptions in the snow leopard’s home exhibit area can also help keep an old cat young. For example, a snow leopard with failing eyesight might get brighter lights so she can see better and move around more easily. A cat with arthritis, like 18 year old Ming Wah at San Francisco Zoo got a ramp to help her climb to her favorite high resting place. Some zoos also build heated sleeping areas for arthritic snow leopards.

All these things ensure that snow leopards like Shimbu, Ming Wah, and others in zoos, continue to live an active and pain free life when they’ve reached their mature years.

NOTE – Shimbu may in fact be the oldest snow leopard in a zoo any where around the world. She was 20 in February this year (2010). If you know of an older snow leopard let us know.

Thanks to Glenn McColl for this fabulous photo of ‘Shimmi’ taken just a few weeks ago. She’s one regal looking dame!

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Habiba Sarabi, Afghanistan's first provincial governor, fighting for the environment

Habiba Sarabi became the first female governor of an Afghan province, the province of Bamiyan in 2005. Bamiyan is one of the poorest of all provinces and the place where the ancient Bamiyan Buddha carvings had stood for 1400 years before the Taliban blew them up in 2001.

Sarabi’s role in snow leopard conservation has been through her fight to establish the 570 square kilometre Band-e-Amir National Park which was declared, with the help of the Wildlife Conservation Society in May 2009.

Snow leopards used to live in this region but it is not known, if after years of active hunting and the war, any remain. However there are still significant numbers of animals that are snow leopard prey, like ibexes (wild goats) and urials (wild sheep), so it is possible that the elusive cat may return to survive here once more.

Snow leopard caught in camera trap in Wakhan corridor, Afghanistan 2009. Photo by WCS.

Today the snow leopard is protected under Afghanistan’s new endangered species list, which was announced shortley after the opening of the National park in June 2009. However illegal snow leopard hunting is still common with a cat caught as recently as March this year.

Sarabi’s conservation credentials include leadership in showing her fellow countrymen and women tourism needs to be in harmony and not exploit landscape and wildlife. Time Magazine acknowledged this role when they nominated her in “Heroes of the Environment in 2008”.

Band-e-Amir National Park, one of the stunning blue lakes. Photo by AP.

Sarabi wants Bamiyan to lead the way in the development of Afghanistan’s environmental practice, because, she says “I am doing this for the future of my people. They may not understand now why it is so important, but if we can preserve the environment and our natural resources it will bring wealth for our children.”

The six stunningly beautiful lakes in the National park were being impacted by ever more local tourists whose cars parked on the fragile banks and many local developers whose new restaurants were discharging polluted waste water and rubbish into the turquoise waters. Most importantly Sarabi inspired local communities to take an active role and they now decide environmental policies and how to educate their own people as well as tourists.