A pattern of livestock depredation by snow leopard to the yak herding pastoralist in western Bhutan

Abstract

The pastoralists co-exist with wild predators and livestock depredation by predators causes an immense impact on the livelihood of the herders and instigates a negative attitude towards the conservation of these wild predators. Yak herders in western Bhutan move from place to place for herding on pasture and they face challenges with livestock predation by top predators like snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and dhole (Cuon aplinus). To investigate patterns of livestock depredation by the snow leopard and determine the attitude of herders towards snow leopard conservation, we conducted a household interview with all 56 itinerant yak herders in the west of Bhutan. Each herd was keeping a mean of 84 (± 29) yaks per herd. Yaks were mainly kept for milk and bulls for breeding and bullocks for meat to sustain their family livelihood. Predation of livestock by predators (42.9%) was among the top problems faced by the yak herders. A total of 398 yaks were lost to snow leopards (78.86%) followed by dhole (18.3%), Himalayan black bear (Ursus thibetanus) (2.7%), and common leopard (Panthera pardus) (0.2%) in the past 5 years (2015–2019). The majority (87.22.8%) of the kills by snow leopards were young yak and most (60.5%) kills were recorded during summer. Snow leopards are considered harmful (73.2%), and herders (71.1%) are not in favour of snow leopard conservation. Herders’ conflict with snow leopards is severe in the current study site, and we recommend social development for conservation programmes like livelihood alternatives for the herders, compensation and insurance schemes, and conservation awareness programmes for the yak herders as an intervention to create harmonic co-existence between the yak herder and the snow leopard.