Four Snow Leopards Found in Pakistan

The Snow Leopard Trust has found four cats in Pakistan! Now they need to find ways to protect them.

In May and June of this year, the Snow Leopard trust team was able to photograph snow leopards at 19 different sites in Misgar Valley. Misgar Valley is the most northern point of Pakistan, before reaching China. Known for it’s remoteness and unpredictable weather of floods, mudslides and snow, the area is a very difficult place to for the team to work.

After extensively evaluating the coat patterns, the team was able to identify at least four cats.

The team took community surveys and found generally negative attitudes towards snow leopards among local herders, mostly due to livestock depletion. Now comes the challenge of working with the community, addressing negative attitudes. The families seem interested in their livestock insurance program, started by Indianapolis Prize 2014 Nominee Charu Mishra.

To the Trust, there are three pillars to conservation:

• livestock insurance programs
• livestock‐free wildlife reserves
• environmental education

These initiatives will restore wild lands, increase wild prey abundance, reduce persecution of threatened predators, catalyze greater use of the habitat by the endangered snow leopard, and raise conservation awareness.

The Snow Leopard Trust, based in Seattle Washington, is a world leader in conservation of the endangered snow leopard.