Snow Leopard Survival Strategy - Panthera

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Acknowledgements The Snow Leopard Survival Strategy (SLSS) is the product of the Snow Leopard Network, and of all the individuals and organizations that comprise that Network, thus it would be very difficult to name each person that has contributed to this Strategy. However, several people and organizations have made notable contributions and should be acknowledged here. The SLSS process was initiated and facilitated by the International Snow Leopard Trust (ISLT) and as such benefited greatly by the wisdom of their Founder, Helen Freeman. Brad Rutherford, ISLT’s Executive Director gave a high priority to the SLSS process over a 2-year period, assuring that needed funds and staff time were available for a project he strongly believed in. ISLT’s Board of Directors backed the process as well, making special efforts to secure the additional funds needed for completion. After much input was gathered from the snow leopard experts in the field and from all the range countries, the Snow Leopard Survival Summit was convened in Seattle, USA in May 2002. This undertaking, where more than 60 experts came together for a 5-day period to reach consensus on numerous topics related to snow leopard conservation, could not have been the huge success it was without the cooperation and incredible support of the Woodland Park Zoo. The Summit was hosted on the Zoo grounds and WPZ Director Mike Waller made sure that adequate staff time and facilities were available to us. The Woodland Park Zoo Docents and Zoo Keepers gave of their time and funds to make the Summit participants, who came from 17 countries, comfortable and productive. Norma Cole coordinated much of the “behind the scenes” activities that kept the Summit working smoothly. Harmony Frazier made the facilities of the Zoo’s Conservation program available to us, and her staff of Andrea Sanford Gates and Suzanne Riley kept minutes of the proceedings and transcribed them to electronic medium. Simultaneous translation services were provided by Linda Noble and Marina Proutkina. Janis Weltzin edited the Contributed Papers submitted by specialists. The Summit itself was a highly participatory process, with sessions and workshops led by a number of experts including Don Hunter, Chris Emmerich, Ashiq Ahmad Khan, Rodney Jackson, Nazgul Esengulova, Charudutt Mishra, Joe Fox, Some Ale, Deki Yonten, Yash Veer Bhatnagar, Kathleen Braden, Saeeda Inayat, Priscilla Allen, Hongfei Zou and Elena Mukhina. Other specialists contributed on technical panels and included A. Bayarjargal, Shafqat Hussain, Stan Tomkiewicz, Sam Wasser, Urs Breitenmoser, B. Munkhtsog, Andrey Subbotin, Ghana Gurung, Birga Dexel, G. Sumya, Stephanie Thiele, Darla Hillard, Evgeny Koshkarev, Lyle Glowka, Dan Wharton and Christine Breitenmoser-Wursten. Helen and Stan Freeman helped start things off on a positive note by hosting an ice-breaker on the first night. Bonnie and Dick Robbins and Marilyn and Bartow Fite graciously hosted the Summit banquet at their home for the participants. Numerous authors contributed to this Document and are listed on the title page. Early drafts of the manuscript were reviewed and greatly improved by the contributions of Kristin Nowell, Ahmad Khan, Terry O’Connor, Javed Khan, Dave Ferguson, Rich Harris, Birga Dexel, Ashiq Ahmad Khan, Cholpon Dyikanova, Yash Veer Bhatnagar, A. Bayarjargal, Peter Graham and Som Ale. Manuscript layout and editing was done by Guillaume Chapron. Financial, material and logistical support was provided by, CGMK Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Silver Cloud Inn, Starbucks Coffee, Puget Sound Chapter of AAZK, Seattle Aquarium, Mandarin Associates Ltd., Colchester Zoo (UK), Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Blank Park Zoo, Oregon Zoo, San Diego Zoo, and the AAZK Chapters of Beardsley Zoo, Wildlife Safari, Fort Worth Zoo, Milwaukee, and Baltimore. The Snow Leopard Network (SLN) came about when SLSS participants recognized the need to continue the close collaboration established up to and during the Summit. The early development and activities of the SLN have been financially, and motivationally, supported by Charlie Knowles. For all of these contributions, I am extremely grateful. Tom McCarthy, Editor and Senior Author viii | SNOW LEOPARD SURVIVAL STRATEGY
Executive Summary I. SNOW LEOPARD: REVIEW OF CURRENT KNOWLEDGE AND STATUS This Snow Leopard Survival Strategy (SLSS) was undertaken to provide comprehensive conservation and research guidelines to ensure a range-wide coordinated effort in the fight to save the endangered snow leopard and had the following specific goals: • Assess and prioritize threats to snow leopard survival on a geographic basis. • Define and prioritize conservation, education, and policy measures appropriate to alleviate threats. • Prioritize subjects for snow leopard research and identify viable or preferred research methods. • Build a network of concerned scientists and conservationists to facilitate open dialogue and cross-border cooperation. • Gain consensus on a fundamental Snow Leopard Survival Strategy document that will be made available to the range states to aid conservation planning at national and local levels. The highly participatory process started with a survey of specialists designed to gather information on perceived threats to snow leopards, appropriate actions to address threats, knowledge gaps, protected area status, policy and law issues, impediments to achieving conservation of snow leopards, and cultural relevance of snow leopards. Drafts of a Strategy were circulated and then the Snow Leopard Survival Summit was convened in Seattle, USA from 21-26 May 2002 and was attended by 58 of the specialists to debate issues and refine the Strategy. This SLSS document is the end product of that process. Background on the snow leopard The snow leopard (Uncia uncia) is a member of the Felidae subfamily Pantherinae and on the basis of morphology and behavior it is placed alone in a separate genus. They are found in 12 countries across Central Asia (China, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia). China contains as much as 60% of the snow leopard’s potential habitat. Inaccessible and difficult terrain, along with the secretive nature of this rare cat helps account for the fact that large parts of its range have yet to be surveyed. Between 4,500 and 7,350 snow leopards are thought to occur within a total potential habitat area of 1,835,000 km 2 . Snow leopards are generally solitary and mating usually occurs between late January and mid–March, and one to five cubs are born after a gestation period of 93 to 110 days, generally in June or July. Snow leopards are closely associated with the alpine and subalpine ecological zones, preferring broken, rocky terrain with vegetation that is dominated by shrubs or grasses. Home range size and shape is not well known. The home range size of five snow leopards in prime habitat in Nepal ranged from 12 to 39 km 2 , with substantial overlap between individuals and sexes. In Mongolia, where food resources may be scarcer, home ranges of both males and females exceeded 400 km 2 . Snow leopards are opportunistic predators capable of killing prey up to three times their own weight. They will also take small prey such as marmot or chukar partridge. In general, their most commonly taken prey consists of wild sheep and goats (including blue sheep, Asian ibex, markhor, and argali). Adult snow leopards kill a large prey animal every 10-15 days, and remained on the kill for an average of 3-4 days, and sometimes up to a week. Predation on livestock can be significant, which often results in retribution killing by herders. Snow Leopards are listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List in that they do not meet the standards of Critically Endangered but are projected to decline by 50% or more over next 3 generations due to potential levels of exploitation (trade in pelts/bones and conflict with livestock), and due to declining: 1) area of occupancy, 2) extent of occurrence, and 3) quality of habitat (prey depletion). They appear in Appendix I of both CITES and the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). Snow Leopards are protected nationally over most of its range, with the probable exception of Afghanistan. However, in some countries the relevant legislation may not always be very effective, e.g. because penalties are too low to function as deterrent, or they contain some significant loopholes. II. THREATS AND CONSERVATION ACTIONS Regional Assessment This document attempts to list and discuss the threats, conservation actions and information needs pertinent to snow leopard survival. However, these vary substantially across the vast extent of snow leopard range, so no prescription will be universally applicable. We used a regional approach and for purposes of grouping areas where conditions may be similar, we looked at geography, political boundaries, cultural/religious influences, and rural livelihoods. Within that framework we defined four broad regions: • Himalaya (HIMLY), • Karakorum/Hindu Kush (KK/HK), • Commonwealth of Independent States and W. China (CISWC), • The Northern Range of Russia, Mongolia and N. China (NRANG) SNOW LEOPARD SURVIVAL STRATEGY | ix
Page 1 and 2: Snow Leopard Survival Strategy Edit
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Page 9: Foreword The range of Uncia uncia e
Page 13 and 14: R.17 Livestock depredation causes R
Page 15 and 16: Other names: Ounce (English); panth
Page 17 and 18: There is little information on the
Page 19 and 20: Figure 1: Range wide model of poten
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Page 25 and 26: political will for conservation sho
Page 27 and 28: significant loopholes: for example
Page 29 and 30: its prey species, such as the argal
Page 31 and 32: 2. Threats and Conservation Actions
Page 33 and 34: homes and clothing in many parts of
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Page 37 and 38: Monitoring Protocols / Success Indi
Page 39 and 40: Potential Pitfalls: • High logist
Page 41 and 42: Potential Pitfalls: • Corruption
Page 43 and 44: Potential Pitfalls: • Organized c
Page 45 and 46: Monitoring Protocols / Success Indi
Page 47 and 48: Potential Pitfalls: • Requires lo
Page 49 and 50: 3. Research and Information Needs D
Page 51 and 52: leopards. This reflects the fact th
Page 53 and 54: Case Studies Jennings, M. D. 2000.
Page 55 and 56: Potential Methods • Develop a sta
Page 57 and 58: Lynx lynx predation on semi-domesti
Page 59 and 60: Stander, P. E., P. J. Haden, Kaqece
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Karanth, U. K. and J. Nichols. 2002
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officials. It will be necessary to
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B. Action Planning Assistance The A
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Literature cited Adil, A.W. 1997. S
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Jackson, R., G.G. Ahlborn, S. Ale,
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(Uncia uncia) population in the sou
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Lu Zhi China Yale Univ. School of F
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Biek, R and M. Poss. 2002. Using ph
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Arctic caribou herd (CAH) have been
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Fox, J. L. and R. M. Jackson. 2002.
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Harris, R. B., D. H. Pletscher, C.
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Jackson, R M. and J. Roe. 2002. Pre
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Karanth, K. U. and M. E. Sunquist.
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for 62% of the area in panther home
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deer migration. Observations of dee
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taxa. To prevent or mitigate future
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of infection and mortality in Afric
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National des Volcans in Rwanda. Two
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were post hoc and harvests were pro
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approximately 46% of estimates of i
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Solanki, G. S. and R. M. Naik. 1998
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The influence of sex, body weight,
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trophy management can contribute si
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SNOW LEOPARD SURVIVAL STRATEGY | 10
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