The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is an apex predator on the Tibetan Plateau and in the surrounding mountain ranges. It is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN's Red List. The large home range and low ...population densities of this species mandate range-wide conservation prioritization. Two efforts for range-wide snow leopard conservation planning have been conducted based on expert opinion, but both were constrained by limited knowledge and the difficulty of evaluating complex processes, such as connectivity across large landscapes. Here, we compile >6000 snow leopard occurrence records from across its range and corresponding environmental covariates to build a model of global snow leopard habitat suitability. Using spatial prioritization tools, we identified seven large continuous habitat patches as global snow leopard Landscape Conservation Units (LCUs). Each LCU faces differing threat levels from poaching, anthropogenic development, and climate change. We identified ten potential inter-LCU linkages, and centrality analysis indicated that Tianshan-Pamir-Hindu Kush-Karakorum, Altai, and the linkage between them play a critical role in maintaining the global snow leopard habitat connectivity. However, international border fences, railways and major roads can fragment LCUs and potentially obstruct linkages. We propose LCU-specific conservation strategies and transboundary cooperation that should be highlighted in future snow leopard conservation. This effort represents the first range-wide, systematic landscape conservation plan for snow leopards, and provides a rigorous and analytically sound basis for further survey and evaluation.
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•Seven global snow leopard Landscape Conservation Units (LCUs) were identified.•LCUs face threats from poaching, anthropogenic development and climate warming.•Landscape connectivity patterns and ten linkages were identified.•Border fences, railways and major roads may impede snow leopard dispersal.•LCU-specific conservation strategies and transboundary cooperation were proposed.
Abstract The snow leopard Panthera uncia is categorized as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. It is the least well-known of the large felids because of its shy and elusive nature and the inaccessible ...terrain it inhabits across the mountains of Central and South Asia. We report the first photographic record of the snow leopard in Kishtwar High Altitude National Park, India. During our camera-trapping surveys, conducted using a grid-based design, we obtained eight photographs of snow leopards, the first at 3,280 m altitude on 19 September 2022 and subsequent photographs over 3,004–3,878 m altitude. We identified at least four different individuals, establishing the species’ occurrence in Kiyar, Nanth and Renai catchments, with a capture rate of 0.123 ± SE 0.072 captures/100 trap-nights. We also recorded the presence of snow leopard prey species, including the Siberian ibex Capra sibirica , Himalayan musk deer Moschus leucogaster , long-tailed marmot Marmota caudata and pika Ochotona sp., identifying the area as potential snow leopard habitat. Given the location of Kishtwar High Altitude National Park, this record is significant for the overall snow leopard conservation landscape in India. We recommend a comprehensive study across the Kishtwar landscape to assess the occupancy, abundance, demography and movement patterns of the snow leopard and its prey. In addition, interactions between the snow leopard and pastoral communities should be assessed to understand the challenges facing the conservation and management of this important high-altitude region.
•We explicitly quantified nonstationary habitat selection of snow leopards by comparing predictions across sites.•While the models developed in different areas generally agreed in terms of the ...important predictor variables, they differed considerably in terms of the scales that were identified as most strongly driving relationships between these variables and snow leopard occurrence.•The models also produced greatly divergent predictions of habitat suitability when cross-applied between the study areas, showing strong nonstationarity in regional habitat selection for snow leopards.•We suspect this strong nonstationary habitat response is related to the large ecological differences between the study areas, which likely lead to different regionally important limiting factors.
The rapidly changing environments resulting from anthropogenic activities and climate change presented challenges to biodiversity protection efforts. China, in its pursuit of sustainable economic growth and urban development, grappled with the increasing challenge of designating national protected areas for biodiversity conservation in a proactive and ecologically effective manner. In this study, focusing on the snow leopard (Panthera uncia), a species of high conservation concern, from the A'nyamaqen and Bortala protected areas in China's Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces, respectively. Using random forest analysis, we conducted multi-scale habitat selection modeling to quantify and compared the habitats between the two sites. Three models were created utilizing data from either Qinghai, Xinjiang, or a combination of both sites, enabling investigation of nonstationarity in habitat limiting factors in different landscapes. Although there were minor differences in variable ranking and optimal scales among the models, they consistently indicated a strong negative relationship between proximity to roads and habitat suitability at broader scales. These findings provided insights into spatially varying limiting factors leading to divergent snow leopard realized habitat niches in different parts of their Chinese range. Understanding these context-dependent habitat preferences was vital for assessing the impact of infrastructure development on snow leopard populations. Overall, this study underscored the importance of understanding snow leopard habitat selection in the face of changing environments. The findings contributed to ongoing conservation efforts and emphasize the need for adaptive approaches that addressed challenges posed by urban development and environmental transformations. By integrating spatial analysis and modeling techniques, we enhanced our understanding of snow leopard ecology, enabling effective conservation strategies in China and beyond.
Conserving large carnivores in an increasingly crowded planet raises difficult challenges. A recurring debate is whether large carnivores can be conserved in human used landscapes (land sharing) or ...whether they require specially designated areas (land sparing). Here we show that 40% of the 170 protected areas in the global range of the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) are smaller than the home range of a single adult male and only 4–13% are large enough for a 90% probability of containing 15 or more adult females. We used data from 16 snow leopards equipped with GPS collars in the Tost Mountains of South Gobi, Mongolia, to calculate home range size and overlap using three different estimators: minimum convex polygons (MCP), kernel utility distributions (Kernel), and local convex hulls (LoCoH). Local convex hull home ranges were smaller and included lower proportions of unused habitats compared to home ranges based on minimum convex polygons and Kernels. Intra-sexual home range overlap was low, especially for adult males, suggesting that snow leopards are territorial. Mean home range size based on the LoCoH estimates was 207km2±63 SD for adult males and 124km2±41 SD for adult females. Our estimates were 6–44 times larger than earlier estimates based on VHF technology when comparing similar estimators, i.e. MCP. Our study illustrates that protected areas alone will not be able to conserve predators with large home ranges and conservationists and managers should not restrict their efforts to land sparing.
•Snow leopards had substantially larger home ranges than previously reported.•Snow leopard home ranges were exclusive with little overlap.•Only a few protected areas across Asia are large enough to sustain 15 females.•Snow leopard conservation requires a land sharing approach.
Climate refugia of snow leopards in High Asia Li, Juan; McCarthy, Thomas M.; Wang, Hao ...
Biological conservation,
November 2016, 2016-11-00, 20161101, Letnik:
203
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Rapid warming in High Asia is threatening its unique ecosystem and endemic species, especially the endangered snow leopard (Panthera uncia). Snow leopards inhabit the alpine zone between snow line ...and tree line, which contracts and expands greatly during glacier-interglacial cycles. Here we assess impacts of climate change on global snow leopard habitat from the last glacial maximum (LGM; 21kyr ago) to the late 21st century. Based on occurrence records of snow leopards collected across all snow leopard range countries from 1983 to 2015, we built a snow leopard habitat model using the maximum entropy algorithm (MaxEnt 3.3.3k). Then we projected this model into LGM, mid-Holocene and 2070. Analysis of snow leopard habitat map from LGM to 2070 indicates that three large patches of stable habitat have persisted from the LGM to present in the Altai, Qilian, and Tian Shan-Pamir-Hindu Kush-Karakoram mountain ranges, and are projected to persist through the late 21st century. These climatically suitable areas account for about 35% of the snow leopard's current extent, are large enough to support viable populations, and should function as refugia for snow leopards to survive through both cold and warm periods. Existence of these refugia is largely due to the unique mountain environment in High Asia, which maintains a relatively constant arid or semi-arid climate. However, habitat loss leading to fragmentation in the Himalaya and Hengduan Mountains, as well as increasing human activities, will present conservation challenges for snow leopards and other sympatric species.
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•A snow leopard habitat distribution model was built with 2327 occurrence records.•The habitat in Himalaya and Hengduan Mountains are more vulnerable to climate warming.•Three large patches of the habitat were proposed to persist from the LGM to 2070.•The stable habitat is large enough to function as climate refugia of snow leopards.•Existence of the refugia is due to the unique mountain environment in High Asia.
Long recognized as a threat to wildlife, particularly for large carnivores, livestock grazing in protected areas can potentially undermine conservation objectives. The interspecific interactions ...among livestock, snow leopards (Panthera uncia), and their wild prey in fragile Asian highland ecosystems have been a subject of debate. We strategically deployed 164 camera traps in the Wolong National Nature Reserve to systematically investigate the activities of snow leopards, their primary wild ungulate prey species, and free‐ranging livestock. We found that snow leopard habitat use was influenced by both wild prey and livestock. Blue sheep served as the main wild prey that spatially attracted snow leopards and coexisted with yaks while free‐ranging yaks significantly restricted snow leopard habitat use both temporally and spatially. This study challenges the conventional understanding that livestock indirectly impacts large carnivores by competing with and displacing wild prey. Our findings highlight that free‐ranging yaks within the alpine canyon terrain could directly limit snow leopard habitat use, suggesting a potential risk of grazing in reducing apex predator distribution and jeopardizing their populations. Consequently, managing their coexistence in shared habitats requires a more nuanced approach. Furthermore, our research underscores the importance of further research efforts aimed at enhancing our comprehension of the complex interplay within animal communities and ecosystems. This knowledge will contribute to the development of informed, evidence‐based conservation strategies and policies.
We explored the interspecific relations between snow leopard, blue sheep, and free‐ranging livestock. It is shown that the populations of three species reached coexistence through temporal, spatial, or other adaptations of their activities, suggesting the potential risk of grazing in reducing snow leopard distribution.
Livestock predation by big cats, i.e., lion (Panthera leo), tiger (Panthera tigris), leopard (Panthera pardus), jaguar (Panthera onca), snow leopard (Panthera uncia), puma (Puma concolor), and ...cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), creates conflicts with humans which challenge biodiversity conservation and rural development. Deficiency of wild prey biomass is often described as a driver of such conflicts, but the question “at which level of prey density and biomass do big cats begin to kill livestock?” still remains unanswered. We applied logistic regression to meta-data compiled from recent peer-reviewed scientific publications and show that cattle predation is high when prey biomass is <812.41±1.26kg/km2, whereas sheep and goat predation is high at <544.57±1.19kg/km2, regardless of sizes of study areas and species, body masses, and population densities of big cats. Through mapping cases with known prey biomass and case-specific comparison of actual vs. threshold-predicted livestock predation we confirm the reliability of these thresholds in predicting livestock predation by big cats. The map also demonstrates that some protected areas of India, Nepal lowlands, and South Africa contain sufficient prey that makes big cats less likely to kill livestock, but in other sampled areas prey biomass is not high enough and the probabilities of livestock predation are moderate to high. We suggest that these thresholds represent important landmarks for predicting human–felid conflicts, identifying conflict hotspots, and setting priorities for targeted conservation actions. It is essential to maintain and restore wild prey to forestall local extinctions of big cats.
•Relationships between livestock predation by big cats and wild prey are studied.•Biomass of wild prey is the strongest predictor of livestock predation.•Logistic regression reliably predicts livestock predation from prey biomass.•Minimum thresholds of prey biomass which increase predation rates are estimated.•These thresholds are important for conflict prediction and mitigation.
In countries such as Mongolia, where globalization of the cashmere market has spurred herders to massively increase their livestock numbers, an important conservation concern is the effect of ...livestock encroachment on wildlife. This is especially important inside protected areas (PAs), which often represent the last refugia for threatened large mammals. We used camera-traps to sample four areas with different protection status across the Mongolian Altai Mountains, and targeted a predator-prey system composed of livestock, one large herbivore, the Siberian ibex, and two large carnivores, the snow leopard and the wolf. To determine the effect of livestock on habitat use by the wild species and their spatio-temporal co-occurrence we applied an occupancy framework explicitly developed for modelling interacting species. We recorded a widespread presence of domestic animals in the PAs, and observed avoidance of sites used by livestock by snow leopard and ibex, while wolves tended to co-occur with it. Snow leopard and ibex showed clear mutual co-occurrence, indicating a tight predator-prey relationship. Results provide evidence that, at the scale of sites sampled primarily to maximise snow leopard detections, grazing livestock interferes with wild species by inducing avoidance in snow leopards, and attraction in wolves. We suggest that (1) PAs management should enforce real grazing limitations on the ground, especially in the core areas of the parks; (2) new policies incorporating wildlife conservation into government subsidies to pastoralists should be envisaged, to prevent increasing displacement of snow leopards and ibex; (3) as wolves co-occurred with livestock, with the potential for human-wildlife conflicts, we encourage the use of a set of prevention techniques to mitigate livestock depredation.
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