Snow Leopards in Trouble Because of Climate Change, Habitat Alterations

Summary: Climate change and habitation alterations are troubling endangered snow leopards, according to World Wildlife Fund's report Oct. 23, 2015.

Mikmar, snow leopard at Hemis National Park, India; The Snow Leopard Conservancy includes Mikmar's image on the site's homepage: "It shows a snow leopard the way we like to think about them: wild and free at the top of the world.": Snow Leopard Conservancy/Jammu & Kashmir Wildlife Protection Department, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Snow leopards are in trouble because of climate change and habitat alterations, according to a report issued online Oct. 23, 2015, by the World Wildlife Fund in celebration of the first International Snow Leopard Day.

The 16-page report, Fragile Connections: Snow Leopards, People, Water and the Global Climate, bases its assertions upon the impacts of aridity increases, glacial melt, greenhouse gases, headwater insecurity, human predation, land development, permafrost thaw and temperature rises.

It considers critical support from conservationists, developers, governments, locals and researchers since “Climate change is going to make the situation worse in future. But snow leopards are facing grave threats right now -- from habitat loss and degradation to poaching and conflict with communities.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change describes average annual mean warmings of about 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) by the 2050s and 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) by the 2080s over continental Asia. The IPCC expects higher rises over snow leopard homelands in Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The World Wildlife Fund fears that, with glacier, permafrost and snow melts, and with water shortages, “More than a third of snow leopard territory might become unsuitable for the big cats if climate change is not checked.”

Global warming grows less nutritious, less palatable plants for snow leopard prey as hares, ibexes, marmots, pikas, tahrs, wild goats and wild sheep.

Heat heads an estimated 3,920 to 6,390 snow leopards downward into conflicts with farmers and herders when livestock become alternate prey and with hunters of flesh, fur and traditional medicine ingredients.

Heat also impels snow leopards upward into thin-aired heights above their native 9,842.52- to 14,763.78+/-foot (3,000- to 4,500+/-meter) elevations since climate change moves ever upward the boundaries between tree line endings and snow line beginnings.

People join the upward trek since “Over 330 million people live within 10km [6.21 miles] of rivers originating in snow leopard habitat and directly depend on the water flowing down from these mountains.” They knit the slopes with farms, mines, railways and roads as global warming increases evapotranspiration and thaws soils.

Habitat and human impacts lead to 20 percent mortalities since 2000 and to infringements upon individual home ranges of 77.22 to 772.20 square miles (200 to 2,000 square kilometers) within estimated total ranges of 1,103,555.24+ miles (1,776,000+ kilometers).

The report mentions: “Less than 14% of the known global habitat of snow leopards has seen some form of conservation or research.” It notes that securing 20+ protected landscapes over 310,685.59 miles (500,000 kilometers) through the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program by 2020 must be backed by anti-poaching enforcement, emission controls and land-use regulations.

Brad Rutherford, Snow Leopard Trust executive director observes, “Helping snow leopards means you are helping humans. People share that landscape with those cats.”

snow leopard photographed by camera trap in Mongolia: World Wildlife Fund @worldwildlifefund, via Facebook Oct. 29, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Mikmar, snow leopard at Hemis National Park, India; The Snow Leopard Conservancy includes Mikmar's image on the site's homepage: "It shows a snow leopard the way we like to think about them: wild and free at the top of the world.": Snow Leopard Conservancy/Jammu & Kashmir Wildlife Protection Department, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mikmar.jpg

snow leopard photographed by camera trap in Mongolia: World Wildlife Fund @worldwildlifefund, via Facebook Oct. 29, 2015, @ https://is-is.facebook.com/worldwildlifefund/photos/a.58993914793.70552.15687409793/10153356135639794/

For further information:

Long, Barney; and Brad Rutherford. 13 November 2015. "Why Snow Leopards Are in Trouble." CNN > Opinions.
Available @ http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/13/opinions/long-rutherford-snow-leopards/index.html?

Snow Leopard Trust. 6 March 2007. "Celebrating 25 Years of Conservation Achievements - www.snowleopard.org." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9mg7MrEKB4

World Wildlife Fund @World_Wildlife. 13 November 2015. "The ghost of the mountains is in trouble, but it is not yet doomed. Together we can save snow leopards." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/World_Wildlife/status/665211447148941312

World Wildlife Fund @worldwildlifefund. 29 October 2015. "Snow leopards, like the curious one pictured, are in danger of losing suitable habitat in the face of climate change. Together with USAID, we’re helping local communities embrace climate-smart activities that will benefit both people and nature." Facebook.
Available @ https://is-is.facebook.com/worldwildlifefund/photos/a.58993914793.70552.15687409793/10153356135639794/

WWF Report 2015. "Fragile Connections: Snow Leopards, People, Water and the Global Climate." WWF Verdensnaturfondon.
Available @ http://awsassets.wwfdk.panda.org/downloads/wwf_fragile_connections__final___1_.pdf