If you compare these two maps, it looks very much like Aztai is “patrolling” his home range; he’s making regular visits to the edge, marking the boundaries of his territory. If we overlay the boundaries of his core home-range (derived from the locations we’ve been collecting over the past year), you really get a sense …
News & Stories
Reporting illegal trade or sale of snow leopard parts
Recently, we were contacted about the possible sale of a snow leopard fur shawl online. This prompted us to look into actions you can take if you discover similar situations. Please understand that it is very important to first confirm whether the item you see is indeed snow leopard, and that we are by no …
Aztai circles the perimeter
Attached is an updated map with recent locations from our radio-collared cats. We’re having just a bit of a problem getting the satellite feed form Tsagaan and Saikhan’s collars, but we’re confident they are still storing data. Aztai (yellow), on the other hand, is happily going in circles around our base camp.
Shonkhor's beeline back
Once again this week is mostly about Shonkhor. As you’ll recall from last week, Shonkhor had headed towards some of the rocky outcrops on the outskirts of western Toson Bumba. He then headed north to check out a few additional small outcrops before making a ~23 km (15 mile) beeline back to Toson Bumba in …
Inspiring the Next Generation of Conservationists
The Trust recently released Engaging Students in Conservation: Protecting the Endangered Snow Leopard. This interdisciplinary set of teaching lessons was developed in collaboration with Facing the Future. It was designed for students in 5th-8th grade, and is available for free. Click here to download the 7 Mb PDF file Our India team has also been …
The story of Itgel
On July 5, 2009, we placed a GPS radio collar on a snow leopard nicknamed Itgel (which means “Hope” in Mongolian). Itgel suffered a serious leg injury from a wolf trap set by a herder and we collared him in order to monitor his recovery from, or loss to, his injuries. For nearly two months, …
Climate Change and Snow Leopards in China
Aside from a few rough estimates of habitat and population size, almost nothing is known about the distribution, relative abundance, or population trends of snow leopards in China. A new Google Challenge Grant from the Google.org Fund of Tides Foundation will enable the Trust to improve this situation. The grant is funding analysis to create …
China, At the Center of It All
By Charudutt Mishra, PhD, Science and Conservation Director It is almost impossible to overstate China’s importance for snow leopard conservation. This single country contains over a million square kilometers of snow leopard habitat—about 60% of the species’ global range—and is home to an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 cats. The Trust has recently begun working in …
Where is Shonkhor off to?
This week the news is mostly about Shonkhor. He has continued his roving ways with a trip to some smaller mountains on the outskirts of Toson Bumba (~14 km/9 miles west of the main mountain range). It’ll be interesting to see if he heads back to his usual area or continues further west to explore …
More perplexing news about Itgel
We pinpointed the location of Itgel’s collar to a spot near the top of a mountain in Toson Bumba. This seemed an unlikely spot for a snow leopard to die or be caught in a trap set for wolves, so it seemed to support our earlier notion that Itgel had finally managed to slip his …