Climate change threatens snow leopards, water supplies

Snow leopards roam over 137,846 square kilometres of Chinese territory, but only about 12 per cent of this area has been covered by research.Gao Yufang, executive director of the Everest Snow Leopard Conservation Centre in Tibet, said, “We require not only scientific investigations, but more interdisciplinary research to understand the social and policy underpinnings of snow leopard conservation”.

According to WWF, a conservation charity, 30% or more of snow leopards’ habitats could end up being uninhabitable (to them) as a result of shifting climates, with hotter temperatures being blamed.

The snow leopard is already endangered, part of that being due to a dramatic loss in prey, leading them into human-filled areas where they may be killed for attacking livestock.

In 2013, twelve snow leopard range states signed up Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP) in Bishkek.

Unchecked, climate change will exacerbate these threats and the species could die out.

It’s not just the snow leopards that will suffer from these changes. Their sole habitat in the high mountains of central Asia is now under the most severe of threats from climate change, reported MSN.

Snow leopards face dangers from poachers and farmers with a grudge and now have the added pressures of global warming.

Snow leopards live in a few of the highest and harshest habitats in the world, but it is a very important landscape for people such as nomadic herders.

Snow leopards, people, water and the global climate, reveals that more than a third of snow leopard habitat could be rendered unsuitable for the endangered big cats if climate change is not checked. As per a data, over 330 million people living within 6 miles of radius of the rivers.

WWF has a long history of backing snow leopard’s conservation efforts but for the first time, the organization is working on a global strategy for ensuring the survival of this animal.

Fan also appealed for enhanced worldwide cooperation on snow leopards through taking advantage of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.bGao said he had suggested that China support and facilitate “sound, applied and inter-disciplinary research” to study and monitor the status of snow leopards in the country. “Together governments, conservationists and communities can achieve similar successes with snow leopards and drag them back from the brink”, added Tornikoski.

Along with the report, the group also released rare footage of a female snow leopard and her cub.

Such dependence will become even more critical as human populations continue to expand, putting the mountainous habitat under increasing threat.