Abstract
BackgroundThe endangered snow leopard is found throughout major mountain ranges of Central Asia, including the remote Himalayas. However, because of their elusive behavior, sparse distribution, and poor access to their habitat, there is a lack of reliable information on their population status and demography, particularly in Nepal. Therefore, we utilized noninvasive genetic techniques to conduct a preliminary snow leopard survey in two protected areas of Nepal.ResultsA total of 71 putative snow leopard scats were collected and analyzed from two different areas; Shey Phoksundo National Park (SPNP) in the west and Kangchanjunga Conservation Area (KCA) in the east. Nineteen (27%) scats were genetically identified as snow leopards, and 10 (53%) of these were successfully genotyped at 6 microsatellite loci. Two samples showed identical genotype profiles indicating a total of 9 individual snow leopards. Four individual snow leopards were identified in SPNP (1 male and 3 females) and five (2 males and 3 females) in KCA.ConclusionsWe were able to confirm the occurrence of snow leopards in both study areas and determine the minimum number present. This information can be used to design more in-depth population surveys that will enable estimation of snow leopard population abundance at these sites.
Highlights
The endangered snow leopard is found throughout major mountain ranges of Central Asia, including the remote Himalayas
We collected a total of 23 samples from Shey Phoksundo National Park (SPNP) and 48 samples from Kangchanjunga Conservation Area (KCA) between 2006 and 2009
Out of these 49 samples, 19 (39%) were identified as originating from a snow leopard using the species-specific Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay: 10 of these were from KCA (8 from Ghunsa and 2 from Yagma regions) and 9 were from SPNP (4 from Shey and 5 from Dho regions)
Summary
The endangered snow leopard is found throughout major mountain ranges of Central Asia, including the remote Himalayas. Because of their elusive behavior, sparse distribution, and poor access to their habitat, there is a lack of reliable information on their population status and demography, in Nepal. We utilized noninvasive genetic techniques to conduct a preliminary snow leopard survey in two protected areas of Nepal. The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is among the most elusive felids. It is widely distributed throughout the alpine ecosystems of Central Asia, including mountains of the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir, Tien Shan, and Altai. Despite being a conservation priority in Nepal and their protection under Schedule 1 of National
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