Protecting Snow Leopards

David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) has worked with frontline conservation partners in Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan for more than two decades, helping shape programmes that will safeguard the snow leopard’s future.

Snow leopard collaring continues to go well, with the total number of collared snow leopards now up to 37, including 22 males and 15 females. The newly collared leopards include ‘Digger’, a male aged 6-8 who sports some impressive battle scars. He has been observed multiple times over the past few years, including once where he was sighted digging for water, hence his nickname. Another of the collared individuals is nicknamed ‘The Dude’. He is also an adult male and just happens to be the largest snow leopard in the wild to date, based on a recorded weight of 54kg upon capture! Collaring of these individuals will enable the team to gain a deeper understanding of the lives into adult male snow leopards. In other exciting news, female ‘Wilian’ has been sighted through camera trap imagery with three healthy new cubs.

The team’s snow leopard population surveys using camera traps have continued to provide vital information for Mongolia’s contribution to the global snow leopard population assessment, called PAWS (Population of the World’s Snow Leopards). The preliminary estimate for Mongolia is 806-1,127 snow leopards. The team continue to survey important regions in South Gobi to identify abundance and distribution of the cats, and to follow individuals over time. This then aids data capture and analysis on survival and various reproductive parameters such as age of breeding, litter size, and breeding intervals – which can help aid our understanding of these mysterious cats and provide long-term conservation strategies.

We have had encouraging reports that children have been positively impacted by their experiences attending our field partners eco-camps in India, which were initiated over 10 years ago. Several former students that participated in India’s first eco-camps have returned to the summer camps to help run them and shepherd a new generation of eco-warriors. We have also heard stories from parents that their children come home enthusiastic and teach their families better practices for recycling and environmental protection. In addition, since our partners eco-camp programme expanded to Kyrgyzstan in 2018, hundreds of children have now travelled to snow leopard habitat to learn more about the wildlife and plants native to their home country, encouraging a sense of pride and protection for their native wildlife.

Have you seen Planet Earth 3? If so, you might have spotted some of the snow leopards your donations are protecting! Our field partners in Mongolia recently collaborated with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit in their efforts to film snow leopards. If you missed it, you can catch it on Episode 6: Extremes. The elusive snow leopard seen in the incredible sequence in this episode is known to us as Presnel, daughter to our adoptable snow leopard ambassador Dagina. The BBC team captured a magical moment of Presnel and her cubs high up on a ridge top one evening, just as the sun was setting.

Thank you for your support enabling us to continue protection of the snow leopard.

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