Snow leopard Cub, June 2013. © Jeremy Krockenberger.

The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is one of the world’s most threatened large cats and is classified as ‘Endangered’ by IUCN. Due to a lack of adequate technical know-how among field personnel, evaluation of snow leopard population trends and the impact of conservation programs have been largely hampered. In 2009 I received a First RSG grant to develop and pilot a tool kit to build local capacity for snow leopard conservation and monitoring. A high majority of trainees (mostly wildlife managers) described it as useful and 65% expressed the need for more focused follow-up.

With this grant we will re-engage and advance the skills of our original trainees, reach out to new trainees, and introduce new methods and tools to begin more systematic monitoring efforts.

Since I first developed the tool kit, my colleagues and I have made many advances in the snow leopard and prey species monitoring. We have developed a multi-level monitoring framework that will help practitioners perform various levels of monitoring based on feasibility, costs and the outcomes they hope to track. We have also made significant progress in developing cost effective ways to monitor snow leopard prey using double-observer counts. Through this project, I will integrate these advances into the tool kit, and develop the necessary in-depth focus modules to support them. In addition to expanding training to additional practitioners, I plan to follow-up with our original trainees in Mongolia to introduce them to these new modules and expand their skills with practical knowledge.

Through this project, we hope at least 20 practitioners in Mongolia will be actively implementing and/or overseeing monitoring efforts. The training will take place in Gurvan Saikhan (Three Beauties) National Park, jointly hosted with Park staff. This will help us build good relationships with park officials, which will hopefully be beneficial for greater monitoring (and assistance with monitoring) within the Park. I plan to finalize the tool kit for further distribution by the end of 2013 and to make it accessible online via the Snow Leopard Network website.