News articles on snow leopards
Mongabay.com news articles on snow leopards in blog format. Updated regularly.
An avalanche of decline: snow leopard populations are plummeting
(01/03/2013) The trading of big cat pelts is nothing new, but recent demand for snow leopard pelts and taxidermy mounts has added a new commodity to the illegal trade in wildlife products, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). Traditionally, the market for large cat products has centered around tiger bones and parts for traditional Chinese medicine. Snow leopards (Uncia uncia), however, are a novel trend in the illegal wildlife trade arena and skins and taxidermy mounts are the most recent fad in luxury home décor.
Conservation success: markhor population climbing
(07/24/2012) Pakistan's national mammal, the markhor, is making a remarkable comeback in the country as a result of community conservation efforts, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Surveys this year in the Kargah region of Northern Pakistan's Gilgit Baltistan territory, have estimated 300 individuals of this large wild goat, up from a low of 40-50 animals in 1991. What's more, the surveys suggest that numbers across the whole Gilgit Baltistan territory may have boomed to 1,500 individuals, whereas in 1999, there were believed to be fewer than 1,000 left. This represents an impressive climb—even for the markhor.
First snow leopards collared in Afghanistan as species faces rising threat from climate change
(07/18/2012) Scientists have captured and collared two snow leopards (Panthera uncia), arguably one of the world's most elusive predators, in Afghanistan for the first time. Undertaken by researchers with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Afghani vets, the successful operation was conducted as a new study finds that snow leopard habitat could shrink by nearly one-third due to anthropogenic climate change in the Himalayas.
First video footage of wild snow leopard cubs in their den in Mongolia
(07/18/2012) Panthera, a wild cat conservation group, and the Snow Leopard Trust have released the first footage of snow leopards with their mothers in their dens in Mongolia.
Animal picture of the day: snow leopard spotted in Afghanistan
(07/14/2011) Snow leopard in the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan caught on camera trap.
Viable population of snow leopards still roam Afghanistan (pictures)
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(07/13/2011) Decades of war and poverty has not exterminated snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in Afghanistan according to a new paper in the International Journal of Environmental Studies, written by researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Instead the researchers report a healthy population of the world's most elusive big cat in Afghanistan's remote and peaceful Wakhan Corridor region. Monitored by camera trap in the region, WCS researchers were able to identify 30 snow leopards in 16 different locations.
