Colorado Wolf & Wildlfe Center, USA, September 2018

THE ROCK LEOPARD

By David Friend (2018)

It feels so familiar. The high, jagged and crumbling peaks, the cold and clear glacial streams, the broad valleys seeded with ancient boulders, it all seems so very much like home. Even the stars; I fall asleep under the same constellations. Yes, it is familiar and comfortable and it’s half way across the world.

Despite how similar the Tien Shan Mountains are to the Rocky Mountians there are, of course, differences. You will see plenty of marmots. Badger digs are common. Wolves are here. Brown bears roam without black bears. The lynx are bigger. Look up and you will see golden eagles as well as Lämmergeiers. There are no big horn sheep, they have argali. And in place of mountain goats are ibex.

I’m here with Biosphere Expeditions, a company that encourages “citizen science and handson wildlife conservation,”1 to support, both financially and in person, Volodya Tytar, the scientist. I’m one of about a dozen ambitious, generous, and adventurous volunteers who have come from all over the world to survey the valleys and mountains for sign of the snow leopard and its prey. In the Ala-Too range, just south of Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, the ibex are the primary prey for snow leopards. You must climb up to the tops of the mountains near the glaciers if you want to find them.

1

Quoted directly from Biosphere Expeditions website homepage. https://www.biosphereexpeditions.org

Volodya has picked an area with potential. This is not the best place in Kyrgyzstan to see wildlife. It is a high-altitude summer grazing allotment full of sheep, cattle, horses, working dogs, yurts, and local “ranchers.” In this little slice of Asia there are no bears. Lynx and argali are very rare. I’ve been told there are wolves and fox. I didn’t see any. All have been hunted and pushed out. The snow leopard is also rare here. Volodya is determined to change this.

This is Biosphere’s fifth year here. Volodya knows there are snow leopards. He has collected evidence. On July 16 he and his team found a set of tracks in the snow. They had hiked up to the end of a valley named Chong Chikan. Here at 3,769 meters (12,365 feet) they set up a camera trap hoping to finally get photographic evidence.

Kyrgyzstan was once known for having the world’s second largest population of snow leopards. In the 70s and 80s the Soviet Union trapped and exported approximately 40 every year to be delivered to zoos all over the world. Since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., as with many of the more charismatic species, the snow leopard is heavily poached. Its hide, bones, and organs sold on the black market. Current population estimates range from as few as 150 to 400 for all of Kyrgyzstan, 2 a country similar in size and geography to the state of Colorado.

Colorado has at least 3,000 cougars and probably many more.3 The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) upgraded the snow leopard in 2017 from endangered to vulnerable. 4 Volodya isn’t convinced this upgrade is justified.

Ibex walked past the camera trap on July 19.

Biosphere Expedition’s Expedition Report (June 2018): Mountain ghosts: Protecting snow leopards and other animals of the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan.

2

Estimates as given by Colorado Parks & Wildlife http://cpw.state.co.us/learn/Pages/ LivingwithWildlifeLion2.aspx 3

4

A designation given to populations that are estimated to number between 2,500 individuals and 10,000 globally. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Panthera uncia. http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/ 22732/0

Snow leopards are misnamed according to Volodya. Deep snow inhibits this ambush predator.

They have evolved to blend into rocky terrain. A picture taken in India that has since circulated far and wide in articles such as, “Can you find the perfectly camouflaged snow leopard hidden on this mountainside?,”5 proves this point. Volodya suggests it should be called the rock leopard. Its Latin name is Panthera uncia. Whatever you may call this carnivore, it weighs between 35 and 55 kg (77 and 121 lbs.) and stands 60 cm (just shy of 2 feet) to the shoulder.

The Eurasian lynx, whose body is just as long, stands taller but weighs half as much. The “rock” leopard is stocky, built for power. Its nimble prey, ibex, can weigh up to 130 kg (286 lbs.). Unlike the lynx its tail is nearly as long as its body. An organ that, while pursuing such formidable prey on steep and treacherous slopes, may help with balance.6

It is another kind of balance that Volodya seeks. He is trying to build a database that he can use to encourage the government, local communities, and/or international organizations to fund efforts that will encourage conservation of this national symbol. I saw snow leopards everywhere...pictures, art, and sculptures on buildings, walls, and on the sides of the highways.

The “ranchers” in the area seem to be in favor of helping this big cat, an attitude they don’t share toward wolves. The aid, however, must not encroach on their ability to support themselves. In Kyrgyzstan, just as it is in the U.S. and Europe, the predator’s future is dependent on the local economy. To hedge his bets, the researcher is also recording petroglyphs. Ancient art documenting ibex, argali, and even snow leopards etched onto stones. Nearly permanent canvases found scattered all over the study area. Perhaps some sort of historical, archeological, or anthropological designation may provide some added incentive to protect the area.

On August 6, Volodya led a group of us, myself included, up the Chong Chikan Valley to survey and recover the camera trap placed 3 weeks earlier. The camera was not only placed near the now absent leopard prints, it was facing a well-used game trail. There were signs of ibex going up and over the ridge between two glacial bowls.

Snow leopard follow ibex. So do I.

We pulled the SD card out of the camera trap and popped it into one of the volunteer’s cameras. We saw ibex. We saw snow cock. We saw horses and their riders. Then we saw a ghost.

In the five years Volodya has been working in the Ala-Too range he has yet to capture a snow leopard on film. They’ve got a picture of an argali and a lynx. Two species even more rare here than the snow leopard. Two pictures that caused some initial disbelief and a great deal of excitement. The leopard, however, has lived up to its epithet; mountain ghost. Ranging in less productive ecosystems, following prey that prefers safety at altitude rather than abundant resources, they roam far and wide. And they do so alone. Solitary, except when a mother has cubs, they avoid each other and us. Easier now that there are fewer of them around. It’s difficult terrain for humans, even the most dedicated scientists. Add to this their ability to disappear into the landscape and you can see just how hard it is to document the species.

5

Can you find the perfectly camouflaged snow leopard hidden on this mountainside? http:// sploid.gizmodo.com/can-you-find-the-perfectly-camouflaged-snow-leopard-hid-1820723797 6

Biosphere Expedition’s Expedition Field Guide: Tien Shan (version 2018)

There it was or was it? Walking past the large rock sitting there behind the group of us huddled around the small screen was the blurred image of...zoom in. More. Yes, it has to be. It’s the right shape, the right size. I got on all fours and “walked” past the rock as this image did just to make sure. Too big to be a fox. Too brawny and squat to be a lynx. The face is not that of a dog or a wolf. It must be. Nearly two weeks before on July 24, the focus of our expedition crossed over this ridge. Five days after the ibex and barely more than a week after the camera trap was, set a snow leopard appeared, as if and quite literally, out of thin air.

I didn’t want to leave. If I stayed here, hidden, just above the ridge in the rocks, like the snow leopard itself ——— Would I be able to see it? Not through a camera, but with my own eyes.

How long would it take? A day, a week, a month? Would it be another year? I left with so many questions. I left hoping that my time in Kyrgyzstan with Volodya Tytar, with Biosphere Expeditions, with the staff and the other volunteers would make it possible for this snow leopard and many more to not only survive, but to thrive.

If you would like to be a part of this effort please contact Biosphere Expeditions. http:// www.biosphere-expeditions.org