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Dr. Rodney Jackson, Director of the Snow Leopard
Conservancy, is committed to saving the snow leopard
(Uncia uncia). He is the leading expert
on snow leopards and their habitat and is the
recipient of the 1981 Rolex Award for Enterprise,
based on his four-year radio-tracking study of
snow leopards in Nepal. He has pioneered the standardization
of snow leopard tracking methods and was the first
to radio collar a snow leopard in the wild. He
is a member of the IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group.
Currently, Rodney is working in India, Nepal,
and other Himalayan countries to track the snow
leopard with remote cameras - producing some of
the first records of natural snow leopard behavior
in the wild.
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The strikingly beautiful snow leopard remains
one of the most mysterious cats in the world.
This high-altitude cat is rarely sighted by local
people, and even less often by the scientists
who actively track it. Because it is so elusive,
accurate population numbers are hard to come by,
although estimates range from only 4500 to 7000
cats worldwide. The snow leopard inhabits the
high mountains of Central Asia, scattered over
12 countries in fragmented populations. Although
it poses no threat to humans, the snow leopard
is sometimes blamed for livestock losses. In addition,
illegal hunting of the cats for their coats and
bones (due to decline in tiger bone availability)
and loss of prey and habitat, have reduced its
numbers to dangerously low levels.
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The Snow Leopard Conservancy's approach to predator-livestock
conflict is innovative and effective. SLC engages
local people in a broad discussion of their problems
and goals and seeks joint solutions with them.
For example, SLC provides the resources to build
snow leopard-proof communal corrals for livestock.
It conducts workshops on good livestock management
practices, trainings for local businesses seeking
alternative income from eco-tourism, and educational
programs for schoolchildren. In return, villages
pledge not to pasture their domestic livestock
in certain areas to maintain land for the snow
leopard's natural prey base. In addition, SLC
studies the cats in their natural environment,
using remote cameras to record natural behaviors
and help to identify individual snow leopards.
Rodney Jackson and his team have recorded behaviors
never before seen in the wild, helping them to
learn more about this very elusive mountain cat.
SLC's broad and creative approach to building
local support for conservation and studying the
cats in the wild serves as a model for other conservation
projects and may be the snow leopard's best chance
for survival.
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