Saving Snow Leopards in far Western China

Illegal granite quarrying in western China.

George Schaller once said that when the snow leopards were all gone, the mountains of Central Asia would become "stones of silence". Now, in China the snow leopard is being lost and even the stones are being hauled away.

The challenge to find the Snow Leopards of Xinjiang

Elusive and mystical, Snow Leopards inhabit the high mountains across Central Asia, but no where are they more numerous than in China where up to 2,500 of the highly endangered cats may remain. Xinjiang, China's western most province, likely harbors a third of that number and may be the most crucial snow leopard conservation area in China, and perhaps in all of the cat's range. For that reason the Snow Leopard Trust with critical support from the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation launched a study in 2004 to identify key habitats for the cat, and the threats they are under. The findings to date depict a grim reality - snow leopards, their prey, and their habitat are under assault, even in the protected areas designed to keep them safe.

Our work in Xinjiang started on a positive note, with a training program that imparted to a half dozen eager Chinese biologists the field survey skills needed to assess the cat's status. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and several key government agencies received classroom instruction in snow leopard ecology and were then taken into the Altai Mountains on the border with Mongolia to gain field practice. Snow leopards are rarely ever seen in the wild and researchers have to learn to find signs of their occurrence, like paw prints and the characteristic soil scrapes they leave to tell other cats of their presence, but in the Altai and eastern Tien Shan mountains very little sign of the cat was found.

A second major survey trip was planned into the Tomur Nature Reserve (TNR) in the western Tien Shan mountains adjacent to the Kyrgyzstan border. TNR is an integrated alpine conservation region of glaciers, uplands, deserts, grassland and forests where snow leopard presence was a key reason for the reserves establishment in 1980. There we found a high number of snow leopard signs, but conservation issues were readily apparent and serious in the extreme.

Human conflict with the Snow Leopard leads to retribution killings

Conflicts between snow leopards and humans occurs when livestock are preyed upon and it is common in much of the region. But here in buffer areas around TNR nearly a quarter of all people interviewed knew of recent depredation of domestic yaks and goats. This was double the conflict level of the Altai and East Tien Shan. With this high incidence of livestock losses, retribution killing of snow leopards by herders is almost certainly going on, but was harder for us to quantify as people know it is illegal.

Illegal hunting by miners

Most concerning was the rampant legal and illegal mining, timber harvest, grazing and other human activities in and near the reserve. Mining in this area is for coal, gold, jade, and marble and most occurs within the conservation zone. Miners were found to be illegally hunting and trapping wildlife and in one case more than 80 snares for birds (Chukar and other snow leopard prey) were found in a single area.

One of 80 snares found in TNR...

Problems of overgrazing and poorly planned tourism

Grazing of domestic livestock is widespread inside the reserve and is having multiple impacts on the natural system. Overgrazing has lead to loss of forage for wild sheep and goats, and an extensive epidemic of hoof and mouth disease has broken out and spread to ibex, a primary snow leopard prey species, many of which have died in the past few years.

Unregulated and poorly planned tourism, and road building to support illegal mines and timber harvest are also having an impact on the ecosystem. All in all, not a pretty picture for snow leopards and other wildlife of the area who are being adversely affected by human activity.

Conservation actions are crucial to save the Snow Leopard

Despite these problems, our survey indicates this is still high-density area for the cats and if conservation actions are swiftly undertaken, saving this critical population is still quite possible. The Snow Leopard Trust and the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation have teamed up on similarly urgent snow leopard conservation efforts in Mongolia, and have a track record of success in utilizing community-based projects to stem losses of these beautiful cats.

On survey in TNR..

For herders living in these remote and rugged mountains, the line between keeping their families alive and economic ruin is a very fine one. When snow leopards take livestock people suffer. Yet when awareness raising is coupled with even small economic incentives such as a handicraft development or a livestock insurance scheme, most local people become tolerant and even protective of snow leopards. Such ideas are very new in China and it has taken us some time to convince the provincial government of their value. But in recent weeks landmark agreements have been reached allowing us to initiate pilot conservation projects in the Tomur Conservation Zone. The agreement also allows the Snow Leopard Trust to undertake more detailed snow leopard research in Tomur, and help the government identify sources of habitat degradation and methods to bring them to a halt.

The Tomur Nature Reserve is recognized as the gem of the western China protected area system, and urgent action is needed to maintain its natural beauty and still abundant wildlife. This will be a substantial undertaking, but the Snow Leopard Trust and David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation are up to the task and are optimistic that good news will be coming to these pages in the near future.

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