Two snow leopards run past a camera trap in Uzbekistan's Gissar Nature Reserve. Photo by: ©Y. Protas/Panthera/WWF Central Asia Program/Uzbek Biocontrol Agency/Gissar Nature Reserve.
A snow leopard in Uzbekistan’s Gissar Nature Reserve. Photo by: Photo by: ©Y. Protas/Panthera/WWF Central Asia Program/Uzbek Biocontrol Agency/Gissar Nature Reserve.
January 2014: Newly obtained camera trap
images have provided the very first photographic evidence of snow
leopards in the central Asian country of Uzbekistan.
In
November and December of 2013, a team of rangers and biologists led by
Bakhtiyor Aromov and Yelizaveta Protas, in collaboration with global
wild cat conservation organization, Panthera, and WWF Central Asia
Programme, conducted a snow leopard camera trap study in the Kizilsu
area of Gissar Nature Reserve, on the border of Uzbekistan and
Tajikistan. Images taken through the study have confirmed the presence
of at least two individual snow leopards in the region, along with other
large predators – lynx and bear – and an abundance of prey animals,
including ibex, wild boar, and hare.
Today,
the snow leopard is classified as endangered, with as few as 3,500-7,000
individuals remaining in 12 countries across Asia. For years, snow
leopards have been reported in this area of Uzbekistan but, until now,
their presence has only been confirmed through traditional surveys and
very rare visual encounters.
Panthera’s Snow Leopard Programme Executive Director, Dr
Tom McCarthy, stated: “It is very exciting to document snow leopards
within the Gissar Nature Reserve in Uzbekistan using camera trap
technology. Panthera has provided over 300 camera traps through
partnerships such as this to better document the range of this elusive
and endangered cat of central Asia’s mountains. With an improved
understanding of their range and numbers we have a better chance to save
them.”
Situated on the western edge of the
Pamir mountain range, the Gissar Nature Reserve serves as the largest
protected area in Uzbekistan, strictly guarded by border patrols and
reserve rangers, with visitors allowed only for scientific research. The
reserve protects several species of rare and endangered animals,
including the snow leopard, lynx, Himalayan brown bear and otter, which
are listed in the Red Book of Uzbekistan and the International Union for
Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.
Formerly
part of the great Silk Road and Soviet Union, the reserve has more
recently been home to armed conflicts resulting from the dissolution of
the USSR and formation of newly independent states in the 1990s.
Fortunately, this strife resulted in even stricter protection for the
reserve.
Alexandr Grigoryants, Executive
Director of the State Biocontrol Agency of the Republic of Uzbekistan,
commented: “The State Biocontrol Agency of the Republic of Uzbekistan is
particularly focused on the protection and increasing the numbers of
rare and endangered fauna in Uzbekistan. Thanks to the hard work of the
reserve employees, and with the active help of state protection officers
and international conservation organizations, such as WWF, UNDP,
Panthera and others, the population numbers of endangered animals in
Uzbekistan will increase.”
The confirmed
presence of snow leopards in Uzbekistan, in the westernmost part of the
species’ range, and the availability of prey as confirmed through this
study’s camera trap images, provides hope for the survival of this
endangered wild cat in Uzbekistan and throughout its range.
source
http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/safeguarding_the_natural_world/wildlife/snow_leop
source
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