It sounds logical. An increase in wild prey (that is food) leads to an increase in snow leopards. When the cats have enough to eat they will thrive. A report from Panthera’s Tanya Rosen on snow leopard conservation activities in More on the snow leopards of Tajikistan, shows how this simple fact is evident in the small Central Asia Country.
Rare video of Snow Leopard in Alichur, Tajikistan from Tanya Rosen Michel on Vimeo.
Tanya writes – “Burgut is one of the conservancies supported by Panthera in Tajikistan. It is located in the Alichur range, in the eastern Pamirs. Mahan Atabaev, the leader of the conservancy and rangers have to date successfully led the recovery of argali sheep, a key snow leopard prey, in this area. In 2012 when the conservancy was established we counted 106 argali, In December 2014 we counted 251 of them. As the numbers of argali are rising so are those of snow leopards.
In 2014 we identified at least 3 different snow leopards. Meanwhile we have also predator-proofed 6 corrals in this area (thanks to the support from the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative) to eliminate farmer-snow leopard conflicts. While many challenges remain, anti-poaching and conflict-mitigation efforts are beginning to pay off.”
See more from Panthera, a US based NGO working to save the big cats in the wild.
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