Snow Leopard Survival Strategy - Panthera

without regulation, for meat and trophies by local residents.
Additionally, wild game meat can be highly prized
for its medicinal value or used as traditional food for
honored guests or special holidays. In some cases illegal
hunting may constitute a commercial activity. There is
rarely any provision for legal hunting by local people,
which disenfranchises them and makes compliance with
laws minimal. The illegal harvest likely far exceeds the
legal harvest in many areas, with resultant declines in
snow leopard food resources.
1.3 Reduction of Natural Prey due to Legal Hunting
In many snow leopard range-states trophy hunting for
wild sheep and goats is a lucrative business, bringing in
substantial income to government, hunting organizations
and both private and state hunting reserves. These can
play an important role in community based conservation,
if they are sustainable and provide economic incentives
to local communities to protect wildlife and habitat.
However, in some cases these hunts are not well managed
and harvest levels result in medium-term social instability
and/or long-term genetic problems. A conflict of
interest can exist when the management agency receives
a large portion of its income from foreign trophy hunting.
Wild ungulate stocks are in decline in many areas,
reducing carrying capacity for snow leopards and other
carnivores. Declines in other snow leopard prey species
such as marmots are attributable to an unsustainable harvest
for fur markets, and pika are targets of widespread
vermin poisoning programmes.
1.4 Reduction of Natural Prey due to Competition
with Livestock
Competition between livestock and wild mountain
ungulates may result in declines of wild stock, thus
reducing the natural prey base for snow leopards. The
potential consequences of prey reduction are two-fold:
direct losses of snow leopards as carrying capacity diminishes,
and increased use of domestic livestock by
snow leopards, increasing conflict perceptions and retribution
killing by graziers.
1.5 Reduction of Natural Prey due to Disease or
Transmission of Disease
A poorly understood situation is known to exist in
some parts of snow leopard range where ungulate numbers
are in decline and the apparent cause is disease. The
types of diseases responsible and what role humans or
livestock may be playing a role as vector is yet unclear.
1.6 Fencing that Disrupts Natural Animal Movements
and Migration
In several range countries, particularly the former Soviet
Block states, borders have been extensively fenced
for national security reasons. These fences impede or
prohibit natural movements and migrations of wild ungulates.
This can impede dispersal, breeding aggregation,
etc. Importantly, areas with declining populations can be
cut off from potential source populations of immigration,
thus disrupting metapopulation dynamics over a broad
range. [Note: Many of these fences are in disrepair and
not being maintained, hence, the problem may be resolving
itself]
Category 2: Direct Killing of Snow Leopards
2.1 Killing of Snow Leopards in Retribution for Livestock
Depredation Loss
Snow leopards use domestic livestock as a food
resource in nearly all areas where they overlap with
resultant retribution killing by herders. In many areas,
encroachment of herders into snow leopard habitat is
increasing. Given the reliance on livestock for food,
clothing, and trade goods, retribution killing by poor
grazier families may seem understandable. Yet predation
on domestic livestock is a complex situation. Greatest
losses occur where native prey species (ibex, blue sheep,
argali, and marmot) have been reduced, but are also more
serious where herders employ poor guarding practices.
Conservation actions must take into consideration all
aspects of the issue.
2.2 Poaching Snow Leopards for Trade in Hides or
Bones
Snow leopards have long been hunted for their pelts,
and demand remains high. A pelt can bring a few hundred
dollars for a herder or upwards of one thousand
dollars on the international black market. In some parts
of Central Asia, poaching is rampant within and near
Protected Areas as unemployed or unpaid rangers seek
to overcome extreme financial hardship by poaching the
animals they once protected. Kyrgyzstan may have lost
more than 30% of its snow leopard population to poaching
in the past eight years. There is demand for snow
leopard bones for use as substitutes for tiger bone from
the traditional Asian medicine trade. Traders will pay up
several thousand dollars for a complete fresh snow leopard
skeleton. Ironically, the demand for snow leopard
bones may be increasing, as it serves as a replacement for
tiger bone which has been the subject of extensive antipoaching
campaigns. Organized crime is playing an increasingly
important role in illegal trade in many areas.
2.3 Zoo and Museum Collection of Live Animals
Live trapping and sale of snow leopards, particularly
cubs, may be a growing threat in some areas. Private
zoos and menageries appear to be the target market for
live animals but little is known about the geographic
centers of such demand or the dynamics of the market,
although there is clear demand within Asia. Reputable
zoos have little need for wild captured snow leopards.
There are well managed breeding programs for captive
populations in the west and an excess capacity to produce
cubs now exists.
2.4 Traditional Hunting of Snow Leopards
Snow leopard hides are traditional adornments for
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