We’ve reported a couple of stories at RMT, involving tracking wolves with GPS technology in the United States. Wolves once roamed this country quite freely. They could be found all across the nation. Their current numbers are far lower than they once were, mainly due to them being hunted by humans. The Californian brown bear and all buffalo in the U.S., for example, were hunted to complete extinction. An animal you might see in Yellowstone National Park that looks a lot like a buffalo, is actually a bison. You will not see a buffalo in the United States.
The major reason that wolves are such a target for hunters is that wolves can’t seem to resist the easy prey livestock pose. Farmers, and communities that relied on the success of the farms, took to their guns to defend their food and income sources. In the same way wolves are a threat to farmers in the United States, snow leopards in Nepal also enjoy the easy prey provided by livestock. Fortunately, wolf conservation efforts saved the species before it could be wiped out, and similar efforts are under way to help protect the snow leopards of Nepal.
“Nepal’s Himalayas are a rich mosaic of pristine habitat, freshwater and wildlife species including the iconic snow leopard,” Anil Manandhar said, from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Nepal. “The success of the collaring expedition opens up new frontiers in snow leopard conservation as well as new avenues to profile Nepal as a living laboratory to help build on international collaboration in conservation science.”
WWF Global recently published a press release to update the public on the GPS tracking success. WWF originally stood for World Wildlife Fund, but after the scope of what they were funding expanded, they decided the old name no longer fit. Since then, the organization has changed its name to the World Wide Fund for Nature, but it is typically still referred to as WWF. They have been instrumental in the GPS tracking program’s success in Nepal.
“The snow leopard conservation program has given the local communities the opportunity to build their own capacities in snow leopard monitoring,” explained Himali Chungda Sherpa, Chairperson of the Snow Leopard Conservation Committee-Ghunsa. “This is further aiding the overall understanding amongst the local communities on the importance of protecting the species thereby building on our commitment towards snow leopard conservation.”
Researchers in Nepal have been tracking snow leopards for decades, using VHF technology and camera traps. For the first time, a snow leopard will be tracked with a GPS tracking collar. The study is lead by the Government of Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, with assistance from the Kangchenjunga Conservation Area Management Council/Snow Leopard Conservation Committee-Ghunsa, WWF Nepal and the National Trust for Nature Conservation.
“Snow leopards are highly elusive creatures and given the terrains they reside in, monitoring work on the species is a highly challenging task,” explained Narendra Man Babu Pradhan, Coordinator for Development for Research and Monitoring at WWF Nepal. “While past studies on the snow leopard have been limited to areas that are accessible to people, this technology will help provide important information on the ecology and behavior of the wide ranging snow leopard.”
It took the expedition team 45 days to track and capture the snow leopard, before they could attach a GPS collar to the wild cat. They collared a 5-year-old male, named Ghanjenzunga. The big cat is nearly 6.5 feet (2 meters) long from head to tail, and approximately 88 pounds (40 kg). It was released in to the wild on November 25th, 2013 at 10:45 a.m.. The cat was not harmed while capturing, collaring and releasing it. Ghanjenzunga will be tracked for the next 2 years. Researchers will collect data on how the cat relates to its habitat and monitor interactions with human territory.
“The snow leopard collaring is indeed a new win for Nepal,” Megh Bahadur Pandy said, director general of Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. “It reiterates the commitment of the government to strengthen measures to better understand and protect the snow leopard whose survival is under threat from anthropogenic and the pervasive impacts of global climate change.”
In order to understand how to protect a species, especially an elusive species like the snow leopard, more information is needed. It took this team 45 days to fit one wild cat with a GPS collar, so you can imagine the time and effort needed to attempt to study this species. With GPS technology, wildlife can be monitored from a distance. We can gather real time information about the animals’ location preferences and behavior. With this technology, conservation efforts have a real fighting chance of creating a world where wild predators and humans can co-exist with minimal interference.
Nepal Uses GPS Tracking in Snow Leopard Study
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