Snow Leopard Survival Strategy - Panthera

National des Volcans in Rwanda. Two vets (one expatriate
and one Rwandan) are permanently employed to monitor
the health of habituated groups of mountain gorillas and
to remove snares if an animal becomes caught in one.
This study examined how snaring has changed as a result
of the Rwandan civil war and how ungulates in the park
have been affected. In the region around the Karisoke
Research Station ungulate numbers have remained
stable and in the case of the black-fronted duiker
Cephalophus nigrifrons they have increased at higher
altitudes. However, a questionnaire survey among local
people showed that there has been a perceived decrease
in crop raiding by all ungulates in the west of the park,
suggesting It decline in numbers. In the east of the park
there appears to have been a decrease in the numbers of
black-fronted duikers but an increase in the number of
buffaloes Syncerus caffer. The price of bushmeat in real
terms has decreased since the war, despite the increase
in the price of domestic meat, and poachers interviewed
were selling bushmeat more frequently than they did
before the war. The level of poaching, therefore, appears
to have increased since the war.
Plowden, C. and D. Bowles. 1997. The illegal market
in tiger parts in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Oryx
31(1):59-66.
The Sumatran tiger is the only one of three original
subspecies of tigers that survives in Indonesia today.
Its wild population, estimated to be 400-650 animals,
has progressively diminished because of habitat
destruction, poaching and the removal of tigers involved
in conflicts with local farmers. This paper presents
previously undocumented information on the market in
tiger products. It shows that, while no documentation
of intentional tiger poaching to meet an international
demand for tiger bones was recorded, the domestic
demand for tiger bones, teeth and claws is still a potential
threat to the future survival of this subspecies. In addition
to continuing work to protect the integrity of tiger habitat
in Sumatra, enforcement actions are required to prevent
the domestic market for tiger parts increasing the threats
to this subspecies and to ensure its conservation.
Poole, K. G., G. Mowat and D. A. Fear. 2001. DNAbased
population estimate for grizzly bears Ursus
arctos in northeastern British Columbia, Canada.
Wildlife Biology 7(2):105-115.
Current harvest management of grizzly bears Ursus arctos
in British Columbia (B.C.), Canada, is based primarily
on modeling of habitat capability/suitability. No research
has been conducted in the northern half of B.C. to verify
these habitat-based estimates. We estimated grizzly bear
population size in a 8,527 km 2 study area in northeastern
B.C. that included the east slopes of the northern Rocky
Mountains (Northern Boreal Mountains ecoprovince)
and the boreal plains (Taiga Plains ecoprovince) using
hair removal to sample bears, microsatellite profiling
to identify individuals, and mark-recapture models. We
placed bait sites encircled by barbed wire in a grid of 103
9 x 9 km (81 km 2 ) cells. In each cell a different bait site
was set for 12 days in each of five sessions. We collected
2,062 hair samples from 332 sites and detected grizzly
bears at 113 sites. DNA profiling of grizzly bear samples
identified 98 different bears; 44 of these individuals
were females, 47 were males, and the remaining seven
individuals could not be sexed. Forty-one grizzly bears
were caught at > 1 site. We used a closed mark-recapture
model to obtain a naive population estimate of 148
grizzly bears (95% confidence interval (CI): 124-182).
We reduced this estimate by 6.8% to account for closure
bias, which resulted in an adjusted population estimate
of 138 grizzly bears (95% CI: 114-172) within the study
area (16 bears/1,000 km 2 , 95% CI: 13-20). Within the
two biophysical ecoprovinces we estimated a density
(corrected for closure) of 29 bears/1,000 km 2 (95%
CI: 23-37) for the Northern Boreal Mountains and 10
bears/1,000 km 2 (95% CI: 7-18) for the Taiga Plains. The
current habitat-based capability ratings for grizzly bears
in the boreal ecoprovinces of B.C. are supported by our
results in the Taiga Plains, but are lower than densities we
obtained in the Northern Boreal Mountains by about half.
With further testing, habitat-based estimates of grizzly
bear density in B.C. could be adjusted using the results of
DNA-based population estimates.
Porter, J. C. 2002. Finding teeth for Russian
Federation tiger protection laws: using United States
gray wolf populations as an inspiration, and United
States endangered species legislation as a model for
Russian Federation endangered species legal reform.
Penn State Environmental Law Review 10(2).
The primary threats to the Amur Tiger have been
identified as poaching, decreased prey species, and loss of
large, intact natural ecosystems. If no connection can be
made between the killing of the tiger, and the individual
apprehended with the tiger or tiger part, it appears
as though no penalty can be imposed under existing
Russian Federation criminal law. While these regulations
are being introduced, the socio-economic instability in
the tiger habitat region leads to subsistence poaching
of ungulates at an estimated three times the limit for
some species. Since being granted protection under the
Endangered Species Act, the Gray wolf has made such
a remarkable comeback that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service has recently proposed a reclassification of
distinct geographical populations of the Gray wolf from
endangered to threatened status. Proposal For Increased
Protection of the Amur Tiger Using the Success With the
Gray Wolf as a Model could be developed. Statistically,
the Amur tiger population in Russia appears to have
made a more dramatic revival than the Gray wolf in the
United States.
SNOW LEOPARD SURVIVAL STRATEGY | 93