“More than half of livestock attacks by wild animals in the Mount Everest area of Tibet are caused by snow leopards.” On the 19th, Puchung, deputy director of the Qomolangma National Nature Reserve Administration in Tibet, said he had mixed feelings about the sharp increase in the snow leopard population in the region during an exclusive interview with China News Service.
In 1988, the Tibet Autonomous Region government approved the establishment of the Qomolangma Nature Reserve, which was upgraded to a national nature reserve in 1994, primarily aimed at protecting alpine and plateau ecosystems.
Puchung said that over the more than 20 years since the establishment of the reserve, local wildlife has been effectively protected, especially the snow leopard population, which has grown rapidly. The 30,000-square-kilometer reserve is its habitat. “In 2012 alone, there were reports of more than 40 large and small livestock being attacked by snow leopards, and herders often spot snow leopards following their cattle and sheep.”
The snow leopard is a large feline carnivore known as the “king of the snow mountains” because it often moves near the snow line and in snowy areas. During the period when poaching was rampant last century, the snow leopard was once listed as an endangered species. Research has even suggested that China’s snow leopard population may be smaller than that of giant pandas.
In the 1960s, it was a period when the snow leopard population in the Everest region was relatively large and active. At the beginning of the establishment of the Everest Reserve, there were only three or four villages where snow leopards were frequently spotted, and cases of snow leopards preying on cattle and sheep were rare. Puchung noted that the number of villages where snow leopards are now commonly seen has doubled, and they have almost become a “natural enemy” of local herders’ livestock.
Puchung believes that the establishment of the Qomolangma Nature Reserve, especially after the implementation of an ecological compensation mechanism in Tibet by the state—such as banning the hunting of nationally protected wild animals and compensating locals for losses caused by wildlife—has contributed to the growth of the snow leopard and other wildlife populations in the Everest region.
The blue sheep, a Class II nationally protected wild animal in China and the main prey of the snow leopard, now has a large population in the Everest Reserve. There is even a group of dozens of blue sheep near the Everest Base Camp that often roam within 4–5 meters of climbers, tourists, or livestock—a phenomenon that was very rare just a few years ago. Puchung believes that the increase in the blue sheep population has also helped the reproduction of snow leopards.
How many snow leopards are there in the Qomolangma Nature Reserve? To determine the current situation, Puchung said that over the next three years, with the support of a mainland corporate public welfare foundation, the organization will raise 5 million yuan to advance the Qomolangma Snow Leopard Conservation Plan.
According to reports, this plan will investigate the current status and evolution history of the snow leopard population and habitat in the Everest region, establish a biodiversity monitoring system centered on snow leopards, build a snow leopard-friendly community, and create a field platform for snow leopard conservation and scientific research. (End)