IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Jackson, R.M.; Munkhtsog, B.; Mallon, D.P.; Naranbaatar, G.; Gerelmaa, K. | |
| Camera-trapping snow leopards in the Tost Uul region of Mongolia | |
| 2009 Cat News (51): 20-23 | |
The snow leopard's reclusive behaviour, generally low population density, fragmented distribution and rugged mountain habitat make it exceptionally hard to enumerate. Since conservation success hinges upon sound understanding of population size and distribution, there is an urgent need for reliable, non-invasive status surveys under differing environmental and habitat conditions. We conducted a camera-trap survey in the South Gobi of Mongolia for comparison with data from previous camera-trap abundance-population surveys in India, China and Kyrgyzstan conducted by other researchers. We documented the presence of 4 adults and 3 cubs during the 65-day survey. Based on the standard buffering technique, we surveyed a 264 km2 area yielding an estimated density of 1.52 adult snow leopards per 100 km2. However, since capture-recapture models perform poorly with less than 20 individuals, snow leopard camera-trap survey results should also include simpler, more basic metrics for future comparisons between surveys or areas, namely the minimum number of individuals detected, number of recaptures and camera-trap success per 100 trap nights. |
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