Snow Leopard Research

The first photograph of the snow leopard in the wild was taken by Schaller in 1970 in Chitral Gol, Pakistan. In 1974 the snow leopard was listed as endangered species on the World Conservation Union/IUCN Red List (Jackson et al. , 2008). Schaller studied snow leopards along with other associated species in 1977 (Sharma et al. 2006).
Later on Schaller et al. (1988) conducted a research in Qinghai and Gansu Provinces in China, total of 650 snow leopard individuals were estimated in Qinghai province, distributed over an area of 65,000 km2. Blue sheep was found to be the principle prey species with density of 1-5/ km2. The diet of snow leopard contained primarily the wild ungulates (30-45%) with blue sheep remains found highest followed by Himalayan

Chundawat (1990) studied the food habits of snow leopard and its predation on blue sheep in Hemis National Park, India and found that blue sheep was the major species (46%), and other animals such as marmots, pikas and birds formed substantial part of snow leopard diet.
Study conducted by Chundawat and Rawat (1994) analyzed 173 scat samples collected from Ladakh, India and found out that blue sheep constituted the major diet of snow leopard followed by domestic sheep and goat. Analysis also revealed that snow leopards consumed significant amount of plant matter with Myricaria germanica accounting for 65% of all the plant matter consumed.
Mishra (1997) studied the livestock depredation by large carinvores in the Indian trans-Himalaya and found that conflict seemed to have intensified related to 37.7% increase in livestock in the last decade.
The study carried out by Bagchi and Mishra (2006) in Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS) and Pin Valley National Park (PVNP) in India showed that snow leopard diet constituted 42% wild prey and 58% domestic livestock in KWS while snow leopards were more dependent on wild prey 60% and 40% diet included domestic livestock in

Blue sheep was the most staple prey which contributes 51.6% which was followed by Himalayan marmots (20.7%), Royle's pika (16%) and domestic livestock preferably yaks were frequently eaten more in winter then summer. So, confirming seasonal variation of snow leopards in selection of their diets. Later, a study done by Oli (1994) in Manang district, ACA, Nepal revealed blue sheep's density was found to be 6.6 to 10.2 individuals per km2 and 4.8 to 6.7 individuals/ km2 for snow leopard. He confirmed that blue sheep and Himalayan marmots were found significant to the snow leopard diet.
Five snow leopard were trapped using leg-snare traps by locating 16 different sites in Langu valley, Mugu, Nepal (Jackson 1996), where radio collar was given to the captured snow leopards. After analyzing 78 scats in Langu valley, primary prey species was found to be blue sheep followed by voles and pikas as supplementary diets.
Khatiwada et al. (2007) found 1102 blue sheep individuals from 43 herds with average herd size of 25.63 individuals in KCA. He found 0.90 (90 males per 100 females) and average recruitment rate was found to be 0.56 (56 lambs per 100 females) confirming a stable blue sheep