HIMALAYAS: Endangered Snow Leopard

[riverwalker]

http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=23704

"Across Nepal, the snow leopard population has been estimated at between 300 to 500. It potential habitat range covers an area of as much as 30,000-sq km. They have been sighted between the altitude of 3,000 to 5,4000 metres, mainly along the northern frontier bordering the Tibetan Autonomous Region, China."

"Dr Prahland Yonzon, a wildlife biologist with the Kathmandu-based Resources Himalaya, however says they have been sighted only in Shey-Phoksundo, Annapurna and Kanchanjungha areas.

Besides their killing by herders, habitat loss due to increasing human population and poaching worry many experts.

Also they have been alarmed by the fact that in recent years, snow leopards' bones have begun to replace tiger bones for use in traditional and mainly East Asian medicine.

There has been a steep rise in the demand for fur coats and other items made out of snow leopard hides in international markets. ''They are sold in all big cities, including Kathmandu,'' says Mangal Man Shakya, chairman of Wildlife Watch Group, a Kathmandu-based non-profit organisation.

''Yet the authorities are turning a blind eye to the problem, and the buying and selling continues,'' Shakya adds."

[OneBlueSky]

1. one of the first books I remember reading as a kid was . . .

"Quest of the Snow Leopard" by Roy Chapman Andrews . . . about 1955, I think . . . now out of print, but I remember it as an adventure tale that impacted a young mind . . .

[lynx rufus]

2. Snow Leopards are awesome cats

Nicknamed "Ounce" after their scientific name Panthera uncia
these cats are indeed playful and sweet. There is not one accounting
of a Snow Leopard having killed or mauled a human.
They are awesome to behold when their pellage winters up,
and their tail is outrageously long and fluffy.
I will never understand why the wild cats are being allowed
to disappear from the wild.