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Snow leopard (Uncia uncia)
Snow
Leopard (Uncia uncia) classified as an
endangered species by the IUCN is disappearing
from many parts of its formally vast range, an
area in excess of 2.5million square kilometers.
This beautiful yet mysterious cat is found
sporadically through the mountains of central
and south Asia. Snow leopards are one of the
most endangered of all the large cats and may
number few as 3500 in the wild, despite
inhabiting 12 countries in central and south
Asia including Pakistan. In Pakistan there might
be no more than 250-350 cats and approximately
30-36 in Chitral district.
Snow leopard a single
species at the top of the food chain is
considered an indicator of healthy mountain
ecosystems. Unfortunately, not only its
historical range has become increasingly
fragmented, but also its population has declined
significantly due to widespread poaching for
pelt and bones, retribution from pastoralist and
rapidly dwindling natural prey base.
Snow Leopard
Conservation Program, Pakistan
This program is the
joint venture of Snow leopard Foundation (SLF)
and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Pakistan
with major financial support of Snow leopard
Trust and Panthera Corporation. The program was
formally launched in Chitral and Northern Areas
in 2000.
The
Organizations
Snow Leopard Foundation
SLF
is a non profit conservation organization in
Pakistan, which represents the two world’s
leading conservation organizations i.e. Snow
leopard trust and Panthera Corporation and is
aimed at conserving viable populations of snow
leopards and other carnivores as an integral
part of landscapes across Pakistan, while
improving the lives of mountain people who share
the habitats with predators. The objectives of
the SLF include:
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Enhance tolerance and
build support for the conservation of the
snow leopard and other carnivores in
Pakistan.
-
Develop and promote
sound stewardship of snow leopards and other
carnivores through scientifically based
population, habitat, and natural resource
use management.
-
Promote the snow
leopard as the flagship for the conservation
of montane wildlife of Pakistan.
-
Fill gaps in
conservation related information through
fostering well-targeted research on snow
leopards, other carnivores, their prey
species, and habitats.
-
Enhance public awareness
and understanding of now leopard ecology,
conservation status and needs, and
management.
-
Support government in
improving functionality and management of
Protected Areas and enabling sound
conservation policies.
-
Promote environment,
develop capacity, and facilitate ecological
research in Pakistan.
WWF-Pakistan established its office in
Chitral in 1993 with the inception of
Migratory Birds Conservation Project.
WWF-Pakistan
Since its inception in 1960, the World Wide Fund
for Nature (WWF) has been working towards the
conservation of natural resources of the world.
With its global Secretariat in Switzerland, WWF
International provides a collective voice for
matters affecting the natural environment of the
world and coordinates activities of the global
WWF family.
WWF – Pakistan, established in 1970, strives to
carry out the global conservation initiatives
within the context of national priorities. Our
aim is to protect and improve the country’s
environment, and to integrate the environmental
principles with other policies across the
governmental and private sectors. WWF – Pakistan
has seen an exceptional growth in the last two
years. It has its Head Office in Lahore and 296
regular employees within 6 Regional Offices, 2
Programme Offices and 17 Project Site Offices.
WWF has identified six global priority areas of
conservation work. They are: Forests,
Freshwater, Marine, Species, Climate Change and
Toxics. Projects have been undertaken based on
these programmes to address gaps in and bring
about incremental improvement.
WWF aims to stop the degradation of the planet’s
natural environment and to build a future in
which humans live in harmony with nature, by:
-
Conserving the world’s
biological diversity
-
Ensuring that the use of
renewable natural resources is sustainable
-
Promoting the reduction
of pollution and wasteful consumption
Goal and objectives of the Pakistan
Program
Over all goal of Snow leopard Conservation
Program Pakistan is to conserve snow leopard and
its fragile ecosystem in Pakistan by improving
knowledge, minimizing perils of poaching of snow
leopards and its natural prey through
community-based sustainable conservation
actions, conservation education interventions,
and assisting in law enforcement.
Program Components
Research & Monitoring
This component aims at improving our scientific
knowledge about snow leopards, their prey-base,
and habitat through latest assessment techniques
including;
• Human-Cat interaction surveys
• Sign surveys (SLIMS & Occupancy Surveys)
• Camera Trapping
• Radio-collaring
• Genetic analysis
The program has so for been able to conduct
Human-Cat interaction and sign surveys using
internationally recommended survey protocols in
major parts of Chitral District and some areas
of NA and AJK. The data collected through these
studies are used to prioritize areas for the
initiation of conservation programs besides
understand trends in the population status of
the cat and its major prey-base.
Camera trapping studies have been initiated in
protected areas of Chitral District to assess
the absolute abundance of the cat as well as
other predators.
CamTrakker™ Ranger,
Watkinsville, GA, USA were used for these
studies. The system is a waterproof unit housing
a 35mm camera, requiring four AA, one 1.5v
lithium, and one 6v rechargeable, lead acid
batteries. The system is triggered when a moving
animal with a higher body temperature than the
ambient temperature crosses the camera detection
zone. This system can be set for a 20 second up
to a 45 minute delay between pictures, and also
set for day, night, or continuous operation. The
delay function limits the number of pictures
taken when a non-target species trips the system
or remains in front of the camera for a period
of time, reducing the chance that a complete
roll of film could be taken of a single,
non-target species.
The first ever, Capture and collaring study
using GPS collars was initiated in Chitral Gol
National Park in 2006. Aldrich-type foot snares
were used to capture the cats using standard
methods and equipment. A total of 804 trap
nights resulted in three captures of one female
snow leopard.
The first snow leopard was
captured on 17 November 2006 at lower Purdum
Mali Ridge. The 35 kg female cat was immobilized
with 1.25ml of Zoletile delivered via blow dart.
The sedated cat was fitted with a GPS-Argos
collar, weighed, and morphological measurements
were taken. Her measurements were as follows:
65.5 cm chest, 40 cm neck, 91 cm tail, 106 cm
body length, 13.7 cm zygomatic bone, 18.2 cm
skull.
The female snow leopard was fitted with a
GPS-Argos satellite collar (Telonics, Inc.) in
an attempt to gain critical data on her
home-range size, movement and activity patterns,
use of travel corridors, intra-specific
distances (avoidance of con-specifics), and
human-snow leopard interactions (analyzing snow
leopard habitat use in relation to human
habitation and livestock pastures). Initial
findings of the study revealed the home range of
the cat to be more than 1500km² depicting very
low density.
Similarly, samples (scats) of carnivores were
collected from various parts of the district for
genetic analysis and study their food
preferences. Scats contain stomach cells and
hairs which carry of DNA material of the
species. Genetic studies help in identifying
individuals, estimate species numbers and detect
change overtime.
Community-based Conservation Programs
Community based conservation programs aim to
manage and ameliorate the conflict between
wildlife conservation and economic development
by encouraging rural communities to balance
their monetary needs with their respect for
environment. Conservation programs include;
Animal Health & Vaccination Program
This program was initiated in Chitral District,
NWFP, Pakistan in 2003. This 5-year program has
been completed at the first pilot site, the Kuju
village, and is near completion at the second
site, the Parsan village. The public acceptance
and success of the program encouraged to expand
the program into the four new villages of Mori
Payeen, Koghozi, Barkhozi, and Bakhtoli in
December 2007 and five villages i.e. Sor-Laspur,
Balim, Drungagh, Rech, and Ujnu in 2009.
The objective of the program was to build
support and promote conducive environment for
snow leopard. Our recent community survey find
enhanced public tolerance, because 92% people
from the program sites are willing to increase
population of snow leopard despite of high
depredation rates. Large carnivores generally do
not get such level of acceptance, for example
34-44% of the Norwegian people want to reduce or
exterminate large carnivores (Røskaft et al.
2007), and wolves and coyotes are the least
liked animals in North America (Kellert 1985).
Besides admiring beauty and ecological role of
the cat, majority people link presence of snow
leopards to the community support programs like
the vaccination program. An annual eight percent
increase in signs of the snow leopard, captured
in SLIMS surveys conducted between 2001-2007 in
the area, suggest that the human acceptance has
been well translated into population growth of
the cat.
Snow leopard Enterprise
Snow Leopard Enterprises offers opportunities to
livestock owners and general community members
specially women folk to increase their household
income in return for a commitment to protect the
snow leopard and its natural prey.
SLE participants live in remote settings far
from markets. By providing an outlet for
traditional handicrafts, SLE helps herding
families and woman in particular, to greatly
increase their income. In most areas where SLE
works i.e. in Kuju and Parsan villages, there is
a strong tradition of handicraft making. SLE
offers additional training, basic tools, and
design ideas that make products easy to sell on
a broad market. Products are ordered once a year
and collected at set times. Products are
developed both for national, local and
international markets. Products are marketed by
project through various wholesale and retail
venues, including an on-line store and zoo gift
stores in the USA. The Handicrafts are marketed
as “fair trade products”, the producers receive
a fair value for their product. SLT serves as a
marketer only, and in a non-profit fashion.
Because the program is based on sound business
principles, it is sustainable and will have a
long lasting social and environmental impact.
At current the program is active in the two
villages of Chitral district and the products
include embroidered napkins (International
market) and woolen sweaters (local market). The
entrepreneurs are paid 30%bonus on the base
price at the end of the year, provided no
violation of the agreement was made by the
communities. 15% of the bonus is deposited in
the Snow leopard Conservation Fund (SLCF)
developed to assure the sustainability of the
program. Skill centers have been established and
equipped with necessary accessories.
Another SLE initiative is Honey-bee farming,
which was introduced in the third project site
i.e. Koghozi in 2009. Fifteen women were trained
in bee rearing and provided bee colonies.
Education & awareness
One of the major threats to the survival of Snow
leopard is the lack of awareness and support.
The overall goal of this component is to
inculcate sense of stewardship and love for snow
leopard and its fragile mountain ecosystem in
the communities through trainings, awareness
campaigns, and developing recourse materials.
Nature clubs have been established in schools
falling in the program sites and are equipped
with needed resource materials. Strategic Plan
for the conservation of snow leopards in
Pakistan has been approved from the ministry and
conservation education & awareness strategy for
Snow Leopard Conservation Program has been
drafted.
3. Future Plan
• Strengthen the existing programs
• Expansion of the programs to the rest of the
snow leopard range of the country
Project Documents:
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