The Snow Leopard

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This picture displays the size of a Snow Leopards paws and tail, and its coloring. https://pixabay.com/photos/

How the Snow Leopard is affected by climate change

Description and Ecology of Organism

Snow leopards are spectacular animals that reside in the mountains of Central Asia. They have a dense undercoat, helping them insulate heat to stay warm. The snow leopard has light gray fur, patterned with darker rosettes, allowing it to blend it with its snowy, rocky, habitat. I found it extremely interesting that their nickname is "ghost of the mountain" because of how well they can camouflage themselves. The harsh conditions and high elevations of its home, along with its excellent camouflage, have made them extremely hard to track and study. It's intriguing how much of a mystery snow leopards still are. The snow leopard was designed to be the perfect predator in its freezing, rocky terrain. It’s tail is a remarkable tool, allowing it to jump 6 times its size, stay warm in freezing temperatures, and stay balanced when wandering around Asia’s rugged hills. Its feet are wide and covered in thick fur, allowing it to stay quiet when stalking prey and disperse its weight, helping it’s movement in the snow. All of these variables are what make the Snow Leopard an apex predator. Despite being at the top of the food chain, the Snow Leopard is classified as endangered, with only 4,080-6,590 left in the wild. Snow leopards are vital to the ecosystem, as their existence suggests that the high altitude ecosystems are functioning well and remaining balanced. the snow leopard's prey consists of blue sheep, goats, pikas, deer, and other mammals native to their habitats. These animals rely on vegetation and water sources. Because of this, by having a solid population of Snow Leopards you can determine that the rest of the food chain is doing well. How does an animal at the top of the food chain become vulnerable? Because of their one predator- human influence. Climate change has reduced this animal's habitat, and increased fragmentation. It has also caused vegetation to decline, impacting smaller mammals, taking away the Snow Leopards prey.

Cause of listing and main threats to its continued existence

Climate change is immensely altering the Snow Leopard’s habitat, to the point where it is becoming unsuitable for the animals that previously thrived there. Rising temperatures have caused shallow bodies of water to fade, making it increasingly hard for snow leopards and their prey to find water sources to drink from. Permafrost and snow are melting as a result of the warming temperatures, which is causing the rivers to flow at different times and in different amounts. This change is upsetting the natural balance, hurting both the animals and the humans that live downstream. The rising temperatures are allowing trees to grow higher than they were previously able to. This takes up a substantial amount of water from the soil, diminishing the water supply for rivers, lakes, and other vegetation. These new conditions result in an increase of vegetation that is unsuitable for snow leopard’s prey, reducing their numbers, which in turn decreases the food availability for both prey and predator. Degradation of grasslands as a result of climate change is another factor taking away food from snow leopards prey. The rising tree line has allowed farmers to move their agriculture higher up the mountains, taking over the snow leopard territory. These farmers who are infringing on the snow leopards habitat become angry when they eat their livestock, and retaliate by killing them. While I sympathize with the farmers who need their livestock to feed their families and send their children to school, it is immoral to kill an animal that they are taking away land from. This decreasing habitat also makes snow leopards more venerable to poachers. Because they now need to go closer to human civilization to get water and food sources they are more exposed. Their pelts can be sold for big sums of money, and some people believe their organs have healing powers. For this reason they are often killed for profit. The escalator effect is also a big problem for snow leopards. They like to live high up in the mountains, but with rising agriculture, tree lines, and warmer temperature there is only so much further they can go to avoid these new impingements. Not even the most powerful apex predator can fight against the effects of climate change.

Geographic and Population Changes

Snow leopards live in alpine areas in the summer and subalpine areas in the winter in order to hunt their prey. These areas are high up in mountains ranges, between 3,000 and 5,000 meters in elevation. Snow leopards live in 12 countries, which are Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Because these animals are so hard to track it is difficult to document how many Snow Leopards are in each country, but it is known that China has the largest number of snow leopards. The Tibetan plateau and far west holds over 1 million km2 of snow leopard habitat. This is home to 60% of snow leopards. Tragically, this is also the area that is being impacted the most by climate change. Berkeley researchers stated that “the region is warming more than twice as fast as the Northern Hemisphere on average.” In the last 20 years its temperature has risen by 3 degrees. Climate change is very real, and it is killing countless animals by drastically altering their habitats. By investigating which areas have remained stable in changing climates in the past 100,000 years scientists were able to conclude that the mountain ranges of Altai, Qilian and Tian Shan-Pamir-Hindu Kush-Karakoram will remain viable habitats. This is about 35% of the snow leopards home. Although a few areas will remain usable to snow leopards, most will not. One study estimated that Nepal could lose 82% of their snow leopards, while Bhutan could 85%. Snow leopards like rocky, cold mountain tops that are mostly barren. Their numbers have already dropped from around 9,000 in 2000 to between 4,000 and 6,000 today. Snow leopards need these habitats so they can camouflage themselves and hunt. Climate change is resulting in fragmentation, rising tree lines, new vegetation being introduced at higher elevations. All of these consequences are contributing to making their territories more and more inhabitable. According to the World Wildlife Fund in the last 16 years the Snow Leopard population has dropped by 20%. Because snow leopards are apex predators they are vital to balancing the ecosystem. If they go extinct their prey would start overpopulation and there would not be enough food sources. This overgrazing would result in other populations dying out as well. It is vital for the ecosystem that this animal stays alive.

Description of Recovery Plan

]There are many organizations that are working on helping snow leopard populations. One is the World Wildlife Fund. They plan to “establish protected areas that span national borders, and quarters that connect isolated animal populations.” This will help decrease the fragmentation of their habitats that climate change is causing with the goal of helping their population thrive. If these efforts are successful they are hoping that snow leopard populations will stay at their current numbers. There are also indirect effects of climate change that are hurting snow leopard populations. Rising temperatures have allowed farmers to bring their cattle up to graze higher on the mountains. This has increased the number of cattle killed by snow leopards. These farmers make about $2 a day on average, they are often very poor and need the cattle for their own survival. Even one death can create a big financial burden for these families. These communities dont kill snow leopards for fun, they do it out of necessity. It's estimated that over half of snow leopard killings annually are retaliatory killings done by farmers who believe this is their only option. The Snow Leopard trust offers livestock insurance to these farmers. The farmers that participate in this program get reimburse for every animal they own that is killed by a snow leopard. This will decrease the number of retaliatory killings and will help avoid a war between farming communities and snow leopards. This insurance policy has other guidelines that help protect their populations. The farmers in this program sign a contract promising to protect the snow leopards from poaching and to have graze free areas to protect the snow leopard's prey’s food sources. In order to protect their territory from rising temperatures we only have one option- to stop releasing such large amounts of carbon in the atmosphere to slow climate change. There is no way to artificially cool down 12 countries to protect snow leopards habitats, we must focus on stopping climate change on a broader level. We need to switch from fossil fuel and coal plants to clean energy. If we want a world with a diverse ecosystem windmills and solar panels are our future. If we continue with the track were on our children will never have the possibility to see a snow leopard In person. Conservationists hope to keep the population steady with these programs, and are trying to prevent the Snow Leopard numbers from going down further from where they are now.

What you can do

To help snow leopards you can donate through the Snow Leopard Conservancy in order to assist in funding conservation efforts.​​ They also allow you to “adopt” a snow leopard for $50-$250, and have a selection of snow leopard figurines, stuffed animals, and merch that you can purchase. The money made is used for their conservation efforts. You can also purchase adoption kits through the World WIldlife Center that include stuffed animals, species cards, gift bags, and photos for $25-$250. The Wildlife Conservation Network states exactly where their donations go on their website. $50 helps with environmental education in village schools, $250 goes to camera traps that help observe snow leopards, and $1000 helps remove snares and supports anti-poaching programs. There are also many ways you can help support snow leopard populations without spending money. Snow leopards are greatly affected by climate change. By trying to bike, carpool, or take public transportation whenever possible you can help limit the carbon that goes into our atmosphere. If alternative transportation isn't an option you can also limit your carbon footprint by reducing your waste and your consumption of animal products. You Can also join programs in your town to help plant trees, pick up trash, and educate others about how to be environmentally friendly.

Brett Israel, M. relations| O. 10, & Israel, B. (2016, October 13). Climate refuges identified for endangered Snow Leopards. Berkeley News. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://news.berkeley.edu/2016/10/10/climate-refuges-identified-for-endangered-snow-leopards/.

Farrington, J. D., & Li, J. (2016, July 15). Climate change impacts on Snow Leopard Range. Snow Leopards. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128022139000080.

Jayasinghe , N., & Dorji, D. (n.d.). Snow Leopard. WWF. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/snow-leopard.

Livestock insurance. Snow Leopard Trust. (2018, January 19). Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://snowleopard.org/our-work/conservation-programs/livestock-insurance/.

Noras, S. (n.d.). Snow Leopard Habitat. Saving Snow Leopards. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://snowleopardblog.com/snow-leopard-habitat/.

Snow Leopard Guide: Habitat, Diet and conservation. Discover Wildlife. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/facts-about-snow-leopards/.

Snow Leopard: Ghost of the Mountains. Untamed Science. (2016, April 21). Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://untamedscience.com/biodiversity/snow-leopard/.

Us, W. (2012, July 16). Protecting Snow Leopards in the face of climate change. WWF. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/protecting-snow-leopards-in-the-face-of-climate-change.

World Wildlife Fund. (n.d.). Where do snow leopards live? and nine other snow leopard facts. WWF. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/where-do-snow-leopards-live-and-nine-other-snow-leopard-facts.

WWF. (n.d.). Fragile connections- Snow leopards, people, water, and the global climate. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from http://d2ouvy59p0dg6k.cloudfront.net/downloads/wwf_fragile_connections_report_1.pdf.