Snow Leopards Still Fair Game To Poachers: Is Revenge A Motive?

Snow leopards are already an endangered species as it is. And a new report suggests their situation isn’t getting any better on a broad-based level, with hundreds of the rare animals falling victim to poachers.

According to a report from the BBC, only 4,000 snow leopards remain in the wild, mostly found in the Himalayan and Tibetan regions. But even with their numbers already low, about four of these leopards are poached per week, and a majority are killed as an act of “revenge” for livestock losses. Adding to all of that, a detailed study from Traffic cited by BBC notes that snow leopard skins are now being traded online in an attempt to avoid law enforcement.

Snow leopards are considered nomadic creatures, living between 1,000 and 5,400 meters (between 3,280 and 17,720 feet) above sea level. And while they usually target blue sheep, mountain ibex, and other animals smaller than they are, these leopards are capable of killing prey three times as heavy as they are. They are also considered a clear threat to farmers who live within their range, as they tend to hunt domestic sheep and cattle.

The Traffic study suggests that about 221 to 450 snow leopards have been killed by poachers each year since 2008. That may be just a conservative estimate, but regardless of how many of these animals are killed, the study does stress that revenge is used as motivation for a lot of hunters.

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“We think that what most observations, seizure records, and expert opinion shows is that the majority is still happening because of retaliatory killing,” said Traffic‘s James Compton. “One of the major interventions to stop that is better protection for livestock, in some of these very remote areas where you have nomad communities and herds of livestock, because that’s where the friction takes place.”

According to Traffic‘s study, a good part of the poaching – more than 90 percent – took place in China, India Mongolia, Pakistan, and Tajikistan. The numbers also back up Compton’s statement that retaliatory reasons are now the main motives poachers have for killing snow leopards; slightly more than a fifth of the poaching cases were done for illegal trade purposes.

Still, the fact that illegal trade only accounted for 21 percent of the cases didn’t disguise the finding that poachers are now finding workarounds to get the best value possible when trying to sell the animals’ skins and bones. There’s also the increased use of social media and e-commerce, which allow for lower-profile transactions and a better chance of avoiding the long arm of the law.

“The snow leopard doesn’t turn up that often in markets, (but) what the report authors have concluded is that it’s a bit opportunistic,” said Compton. “If a snow leopard is killed and the parts or the pelt is saleable, it’s almost like getting your own back for the livestock you’ve lost.”

Fortunately for these endangered animals, there may be some hope in Kyrgyzstan, where the Snow Leopard Trust and Snow Leopard Foundation are working closely with the country’s government to help in their conservation. A former hunting ground in Shamshy has been converted into a wildlife sanctuary, and conservationists are optimistic that snow leopards would gravitate toward the sanctuary and avoid gutting livestock populations, due to the high populations of ibex and mountain goats in the area.

Things may continue improving for the snow leopards in the country, according to Snow Leopard Foundation Kyrgyzstan director Kuban Jumabai uulu, who was quoted by the Christian Science Monitor as saying population counts have indeed been going up.

“Earlier this year, we had found snow leopard tracks and scratch marks on several ridgelines in Shamshy. Now, (new camera-trap) pictures prove the cat’s presence in the sanctuary.”

The proof of snow leopards in the Shamshy sanctuary in Kyrgyzstan only amounts to baby steps thus far. Still, a little progress in this endangered species’ survival is better than none at all.

[Featured Image by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images]