On the snow leopard trails: Occupancy pattern and implications for management in the Pamir
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2022
Abstract
The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) inhabits one of the most challenging environments on Earth, referred to as the `third pole'. Only a fraction of its vast range has been explored thus far, owing to myriad of barriers inflicted by the remote terrain and socio-ecological realities of the landscapes. Understanding distribution patterns of species is essential to devise practical management measures. This study aimed to understand the distribution pattern and factors influencing occupancy of snow leopard in the Pamir Mountain range through sign-based occupancy modelling. Our study confirmed that the Pamir range is a snow leopard stronghold, with occupancy estimated at 0.57 +/- 0.02. The topographic features positively influenced the detection probability (p = 0.37 +/- 0.005) of snow leopards. Occupancy was influenced by mean annual precipitation (b = -6.12 +/- 1.8), density of roads (b = -1.61 +/- 0.6) and water sources (b = 0. 74 +/- 0.4). Our findings underpin that sign-based distribution surveys provide vigorous scientific knowledge about elusive species and merit replication being used for other species. We propose to redefine the protected area boundaries based on ecological knowledge and encourage transboundary cooperation to safeguard snow leopards at a landscape scale. CO 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Keywords
Carnivore, Panthera uncia, Distribution, Khunjerab, Pamir, Pakistan
Divisions
InstituteofBiologicalSciences
Funders
Snow Leopard Trust,Universiti Malaya [PG002-2015B],Wildlife Con-servation Network (WCN)
Publication Title
Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences
Volume
29
Issue
1
Publisher
Elsevier
Publisher Location
RADARWEG 29, 1043 NX AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS