Presence of the Snow Leopard Panthera Uncia Confirmed at Four Sites in the Chinese Tianshan Mountains

Presence of the snow leopard Panthera uncia confirmed at four sites in the Chinese Tianshan Mountains

P AUL J. BUZZARD,ROLLER M A M ING,MARDAN T URGHAN J IAWU X IONG and T ONG Z HANG

Abstract The Endangered snow leopard Panthera uncia is a and infrastructure development. More research is needed flagship species of mountainous central Asia, and a conser- for effective conservation of the species (Alexander et al., vation concern. China has the largest extent of potential ; Li et al., ). To address this we provide data from snow leopard habitat and is thus crucial for snow leopard camera traps at four areas across the Tianshan Mountains, in- conservation. There are many challenges to snow leopard cluding some areas not previously systematically surveyed. conservation in China, however, and there is still little infor- The Tianshan Mountains stretch across Xinjiang province mation on the species for many geographical locations, in- in north-west China and provide a potential link between cluding the Tianshan Mountains of Xinjiang province, snow leopard populations in Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan and which are important because they potentially connect Mongolia. These populations have been recognized as the snow leopard populations in Krygyzstan and Kazakhstan subspecies P. uncia uncia and P. uncia irbis, respectively with those in Mongolia. We used camera traps in four (Janecka et al., ). Given their geographical location, the areas across eastern, central and western Tianshan, with a Tianshan Mountains are potentially important to snow leop- total survey effort of , camera-trapping days. We con- ard conservation, and it is a priority to determine the snow firmed the presence of snow leopards and an abundance leopard’s status there (Snow Leopard Network, ). of potential snow leopard prey, including the Siberian ibex In China, snow leopard conservation efforts increased in Capra sibirica, in all areas. We found – individual adult the late s when the snow leopard was protected as a snow leopards at each site, with relatively limited survey ef- class  species and several nature reserves were established  fort, and more study is needed to fully investigate the im- (e.g. Tomur Feng ( km ); Li et al., ). Despite these portance of the Tianshan Mountains for the species. positive steps, early work by Schaller et al. () in the Establishing more protected areas is essential for snow leop- Tianshan Mountains and other parts of Xinjiang found rela- ard conservation, and we have used data from this study to tively few signs of snow leopards. In Tomur Feng reserve in apply for protected area status for several areas. the western Tianshan, adjacent to the Krygyzstan border, there was more evidence of snow leopard presence than in Keywords Camera trapping, China, Panthera uncia,pro- the Harendanban Shan of the central Tianshan (Schaller tected area, Siberian ibex, snow leopards, Tianshan et al., ). Subsequent work at Tomur Feng confirmed Mountains its importance for snow leopards (e.g. Ma et al., ;  he snow leopard Panthera uncia, a flagship species MaMing et al., ), and more recent work confirmed of mountainous central Asia, is categorized as snow leopard presence west of Jinghe in the western T  Endangered on the IUCN Red List (Jackson et al., ). Tianshan, near Kazakhstan (Pan et al., ). Wu et al.  China has the largest number of snow leopards and the lar- ( ) reported a relatively high density of Siberian ibex  ±    gest area of potential habitat of the  range countries Capra sibirica ( SD ibex per km ) in the  –  (McCarthy & Mallon, ). China is thus crucial to snow Tianshan south of Urumqi and estimated . . snow leo-   leopard conservation, but there are many challenges to the pards per km could be supported. conservation of the species, including poaching, mining, To detect the presence of snow leopards and potential prey, including Siberian ibex, red deer Cervus elaphus and wild boar Sus scrofa, in Tianshan we set heat/motion- sensing infrared camera traps that recorded both photo- PAUL J. BUZZARD (Corresponding author) Detroit Zoological Society, 8450 W. 10 graphs and videos (Bushnell/Reconyx). To maximize the Mile Road, Royal Oak, MI 48067, USA. E-mail [email protected] area covered and the number of snow leopards captured ROLLER MAMING and MARDAN TURGHAN Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, China we set cameras singly near snow leopard sign or in areas likely to be used by snow leopards, such as along valleys. JIAWU XIONG and TONG ZHANG Central South Forest Inventory and Planning  –  Institute, Changsha 410014, China We set cameras at , , m altitude and at least  m apart or in different valleys. We set  cameras during Received  May . Accepted  May . First published online  July . December –June  and/or January–May  at four

Oryx, 2017, 51(4), 594–596 © 2017 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605317000850 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 28 Sep 2021 at 16:14:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605317000850 Snow leopards in the Tianshan Mountains 595

TABLE 1 Numbers of camera sites, camera-days, and independent images or events recorded (adult snow leopard Panthera uncia individuals identified), and camera-trapping rates (events per  camera-days), for the four study areas in the Tianshan Mountains of Xinjiang, China (Fig. ).

Study location No. of No. of No. of events No. of events (area) camera sites camera-days (no. of individuals) per 100 camera-days Urumqi (45 km2) 5 475 22 (3) 4.6 Wusu (220 km2) 15 1,649 11 (2) 0.7 Jinghe (75 km2) 8 520 24 (2) 4.6 Ili (200 km2) 15 572 15 (3) 2.6

FIG. 1 The snow leopard Panthera uncia range (Jackson et al., ), and the four study areas in the Tianshan Mountains of Xinjiang, China.

study areas c. – km apart: () south of Urumqi, () four by comparing spot patterns and scars and other distinguish- valleys – km apart (Maolugou, Bayinggou, Toudagou ing marks. Although the cameras were set singly, the com- and Dianzhangou) near Wusu, () east of Jinghe, and () bination of pictures and videos often provided clear views of around the Buzarde valley near Ili and the Kazakhstan bor- both sides of individuals, and the identification of indivi- der (Table ; Fig. ). duals was confirmed by several observers. Consecutive photographs of snow leopards and other At each site potential prey of the snow leopard, particu- species at the same site were deemed independent events larly Siberian ibex, were common; for example, ibex herds of when there was at least a -hour interval between them – individuals were observed frequently while setting up (Rovero & Marshall, ). To determine survey effort we cameras near Wusu, and at each study area we captured calculated the number of camera trap-days from the date multiple events of ibex in groups of at least – individuals of each camera’s deployment until the date of its retrieval (from a low of six events at Jinghe to  events at Wusu). We or until the last photograph was taken. To compare with also captured  events of wild boar at Ili and three at Wusu, other snow leopard studies we calculated camera trapping as well as one event of red deer at Urumqi and six at Wusu. rates (events per  camera-days), and to demonstrate Urumqi and Jinghe had the highest camera-trapping rates the relative importance of areas we distinguished among for snow leopards, and Wusu had the lowest (Table ); snow leopard individuals in the photographs and videos snow leopards were recorded in only two of the valleys

TABLE 2 Details of the protected areas for which formal applica- with the necessary approvals and permits from the appro- tions were made to the Chinese government based on snow leopard priate institutions in China. data from the Tianshan Mountains (Fig. ).

Protected Area Author contributions area Class Location (ha) Wulan Nur Provincial 84°–84°30′E; 43°45′–44°N 45,000 PJB, RM, and MT contributed to the study design, field- ′– ′ ′– ′ Zhaobishan National 87°17 87°24 E; 43°10 43°24 N 750 work, and writing the article. JX and TZ contributed to ′– ′– ′ Toutunhe National 86°45 87°E; 43°16 43°31 N 1,410 the study design and protected area applications.

surveyed in Wusu (Maolugou and Bayinggou). We identified References at least two or three individual adult snow leopards at each  site (Table ). At Maolugou valley, Wusu, two adult snow ALEXANDER, J.S., ZHANG, C., SHI,K.&RIORDAN,P.()A leopards were photographed together, and in Urumqi two spotlight on snow leopard conservation in China. Integrative adults were recorded within a -minute interval. Zoology, , –. JACKSON, R., MALLON, D., MCCARTHY, T., CHUNDAWAT, R.A. & Given their geographical location between Central   HABIB,B.( ) Panthera uncia.InThe IUCN Red List of Asia and Mongolia (Snow Leopard Network, ), the Threatened Species : e.TA. Http://dx.doi.org/. Tianshan Mountains are a conservation priority for snow /IUCN.UK..RLTS.TA.en [accessed  May leopards and our study demonstrates the importance of ]. the Tianshan Mountains for snow leopard conservation. JANECKA, J.E., ZHANG, Y., LI, D., MUNKHTSOG, B., BAYARAA, M.,  We confirmed the presence of several adult snow leopards GALSANDORJ, N. et al. ( ) Range-wide snow leopard phylogeography supports three subspecies. Journal of Heredity, and large numbers of potential prey, such as Siberian ibex, http://academic.oup.com/jhered/article-lookup/doi/./jhered/ at multiple areas across the east, central and western esx. Tianshan. In addition, our study supports previous findings LI, J., XIAO,L.&LU,Z.() Challenges of snow leopard in the western Tianshan, where Pan et al. () recorded – conservation in China. Science China Life Sciences, , –.   individual adult snow leopards in  km . Given this po- MA, M., XU, F., CHUNDAWAT, R.S., JUMABAY, K., WU, Y., AIZEZI &  tential for large numbers of snow leopards, more work is ne- ZHU,M.( ) Camera trapping of snow leopards for the photo capture rate and population size in the Muzat Valley of Tianshan cessary at our study sites and across the Tianshan to clarify Mountains. Acta Zoologica Sinica, , –. [In Chinese] snow leopard density and status. For example, we recorded MAMING, R., XU,F.&CHENG,Y.() Snow Leopards in Xinjiang. three individuals ( males and  female) south of Urumqi Science Press, Beijing, China. with relatively limited trapping effort. These same individuals MCCARTHY,T.&MALLON, D. (eds) () Snow Leopards. Academic were also recorded in a much greater survey effort adjacent to Press, London, UK. PAN, G., ALEXANDER, J.S., RIORDAN, P., SHI, K., KEDERHAN &YANG, our study area by Xinjiang Wild Watchers, who obtained H. () Detection of a snow leopard population in northern photographic evidence of at least  individual snow leopards, Bortala, Xinjiang, China. CATnews, , –.  including  adults, in c.  km (Xing, ). ROVERO,F.&MARSHALL, A.R. () Camera trapping photographic To enhance snow leopard conservation in Xinjiang there rate as an index of density in forest ungulates. Journal of Applied  – is an urgent need for more protected areas (Xu et al., ), Ecology, , . SCHALLER, G.B., HONG, L., TALIPU,JUNRANG,R.&MINGJIANG,Q. and the Tianshan Mountains were the focus of a con- () The snow leopard in Xinjiang, China. Oryx, , –. servation and management plan workshop organized by SNOW LEOPARD NETWORK () Snow Leopard Survival Strategy. the Xinjiang Forestry Bureau (Tianshan Snow Leopard Revised  Version. Snow Leopard Network, Seattle, USA. Conservation Conference, – August ). Our data WU, D., MAMING, R., XU, G., ZHU,X.&BUZZARD,P.() confirm the importance of several areas for snow leopards, Relationship between ibex and snow leopard population density in Tian Shan. Selevinia, , –. and we have used these data as the basis for formal applica- XING,R.() Snow Leopard Survey and Conservation Project in tions to the Chinese and Xinjiang Governments for multiple Xinjiang. Tianshan Snow Leopard Forum, – August . protected areas (Table ). XU, G., MAMING, R., BUZZARD, P.J. & BLANK,D.() Nature Reserves in Xinjiang: a snow leopard paradise or refuge for how long? Selevinia, , –. Acknowledgements

We thank the State Forestry Administration of Xinjiang for Biographical sketches assistance with this project; Xu Guohua and Wu Daoning ’ for help with fieldwork; and Kim Williams-Guillén for P AUL B UZZARD s work focuses on protected area management and wildlife monitoring with remote sensing technology. R OLLER help with the figure. Funding was received from Detroit M A M ING,MARDAN T URGHAN,JIAWU XIONG, and T ONG  Zoological Society and a conservation grant from the Z HANG all focus on snow leopard, ungulate and bird research as Snow Leopard Network. This research was conducted well as protected area management.