Kyrgyzstan: Snow Leopard Conservation in the Tien Shans

Alpine Predator

The snow leopard (Uncia uncia) is an endangered big cat inhabiting the mountain ranges of Central Asia. The snow leopard is uniquely adapted to its high elevation habitat, with a thick coat for warmth, powerfully muscled legs for leaping among rocks and cliffs, and a long, well-furred tail for balance. The snow leopard preys on a wide variety of animals, but focuses mostly on wild goats and sheep, with marmots, hares, and large birds such as snowcock filling out the menu. When natural wild prey become scarce, as is happening across many of the cat’s range states due to human hunting and disturbance, snow leopards may turn to domestic livestock for food. This puts them in direct conflict with local herders, and too frequently the result is death for the snow leopard. Combined with illegal killing for skins and trophies, the snow leopard population is now as low as 4,000 to 7,000 animals across the cat’s enormous range that stetches from the Himalayas of Nepal to the Altai Mountains of Russia.

Kyrgyzstan’s Big Cats

A Russian study in the 1980s estimated that Kyrgyzstan boasted one of the densest snow leopard populations in the world.  Since the break-up of the Soviet Union the snow leopard population has likely declined due to illegal trade, lack of regulation, and poor alternative income sources. Still, current estimates indicate that between 150 and 500 snow leopards now inhabit the country.

In 1995 the 720 square kilometers. Sarychat Ertash Zapovednik (Strictly Protected Area) was established in the central Tien Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan adjacent to the Kumtor Mine site. Snow leopards also occur in five other zapovedniks, including Besh Aral, Naryn, Ala Archa, Issyk Kul and Sary Cheleck.  The total snow leopard habitat under protection, including national parks and zakaznika (lesser protected areas), amounts to about 1.1% of the estimated 105,000 square kilometers of snow leopard range in the country.

WCS and Snow Leopard Research

Due to their cryptic nature, large home ranges and small population densities it is extremely difficult to directly monitor snow leopard populations. Because of this, sign abundance as an index of snow leopard density is often used to indirectly monitor populations. Therefore WCS has helped initiate a project who’s goal is to independently estimate snow leopard density through a camera capture-recapture study and then compare results with sign abundance surveys and a simple predator-prey ratio model. Through this we hope to validate sign abundance as an index of snow leopard abundance and to develop a predictive predator-prey model. This will increase confidence in snow leopard monitoring techniques and ensure that population changes are detectable.

This research includes two study areas in Kyrgyzstan, the Sary Chat Ertash Zapovednik and the Jangart hunting reserve. Data from a third study site in the Tomur Protected Area in the Chinese Tien Shan will be used in the analyses. Chinese data will be made available by our partner in the project, the International Snow Leopard Trust (ISLT). These three sites have been selected to represent areas of varying prey density and thus suspected variation in snow leopard density. 

The results of this study will provide much needed comparative results from a distinctly different part of snow leopard range, the Tien Shan Mountains, to previous studies in the Eastern Himalayas. This study may also provide an additional method for the snow leopard researcher’s tool chest, that being prey-predator population modeling. Such models have proven useful in many predator-prey systems and meets the criteria of being inexpensive and easily applied.

This project is part of a collaborative effort with ISLT. The project is also focusing on reducing people/wildlife conflicts in interior mountain villages, improving the quality of life for people living in the region, and providing local communities with conservation education. This project has worked with Kyrgyz women from herding families to initiate a program that allows them to earn additional income through the production and sale of handicrafts made from the wool from their livestock. As part of the program, herders sign contracts agreeing to support conservation activities in the regions, to abstain from poaching the endangered snow leopard and its prey, and to stop other poaching within the region.