Winter habitat use of snow leopards in Tomur National Nature Reserve of Xinjiang, Northwest China

Xu, Feng; Ming, Ma; Yang, Weikang; Blank, David A.; Wu, Yiqun; McCarthy, Thomas M.; Munkhtsog, Bariushaa

doi:10.3724/sp.j.1227.2012.00191

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Habitat modeling of snow leopards has been a frequent research topic [2]. Research in China, Nepal, and Mongolia has shown that terrain (slope, ruggedness, and aspect), elevation, and prey availability determine snow leopard habitat selection [7,11,14,16,18,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. However, habitat selection is often derived from expert opinion and from indirect signs of presence (e.g., scrapes and feces).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal space use and habitat selection of GPS collared snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in the Mongolian Altai range

Rosenbaum¹,

Poyarkov

Munkhtsog

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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Although the home range and habitat selection of animal species is among the fundamental pieces of biological information collected by research projects during recent decades, published information on the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) home range is limited. The Altai Mountains of central Asia contain some of the largest and most important remaining conservation landscapes for snow leopards globally, but there is a limited understanding of the species’ ecology in this region. First, we used the data from 5 snow leopards equipped with GPS collars at four study sites in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia to broadly characterize patterns of home range use between 2013 and 2019. The data was used to calculate home range size from a 10 month period using three different estimators: minimum convex polygons (MCP), kernel density distributions (KDE), and local convex hulls (LoCoH). Second, ten data sets from 8 individual snow leopards were combined to cover all 12 months of a year and to generate a general additive mixed model of seasonal home range use and seasonal resource use. We found 1) large variation in home ranges between sites during the monitoring period ranging minimally between 26.1 and 395.3km2 (MCP); 2) Local convex hull home ranges were smaller compared to home ranges based on minimum convex polygons and kernels and yielded more biologically appropriate home range estimates; 3) monthly home ranges of males were larger than females; 4) female monthly home ranges decreased in summer, while male monthly range use remained stable throughout the year; and, 5) while both sexes shared similar habitat preference in winter (steep south-western slopes at high elevation), our data suggest different habitat preferences between sexes in summer. Knowledge of the space use of threatened species is crucial for their conservation, and this is especially true for apex predators who often provide benefits for an entire ecosystem. Our study provides a preliminary understanding of the spatial ecology of this important species in an area of critical conservation concern.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal space use and habitat selection of GPS collared snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in the Mongolian Altai range

Rosenbaum¹,

Poyarkov

Munkhtsog

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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“…The snow leopard is a keystone species for the alpine ecosystem in Central Asia and its status attracts attention, with numerous projects having been conducted to investigate and conserve the species [57,58]. In spite of the long history of human-snow leopard conflict [59][60][61][62], the large cat is one of the species with the least human disturbance (Figure S4) across its range, which has only declined in a few regions, such as the eastern part of its range within the Giant Panda National Park [63] and the Tomur National Nature Reserve of Xinjiang, Northwest China [64]. The snow leopard retains a healthy population in a broad area, and its conservation status was upgraded from Endangered to Vulnerable in 2017 [3].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential Range Shift of Snow Leopard in Future Climate Change Scenarios

Dazhi³

et al. 2022

Sustainability

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The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) lives in alpine ecosystems in Central Asia, where it could face intensive climate change and is thus a major conservation concern. We compiled a dataset of 406 GPS-located occurrences based on field surveys, literature, and the GBIF database. We used Random Forest to build different species distribution models with a maximum of 27 explanatory variables, including climatic, topographical, and human impact variables, to predict potential distribution for the snow leopard and make climate change projections. We estimated the potential range shifts of the snow leopard under two global climate models for different representative concentration pathways for 2050 and 2070. We found the distribution center of the snow leopard may move northwest by about 200 km and may move upward in elevation by about 100 m by 2070. Unlike previous studies on the range shifts of the snow leopard, we highlighted that upward rather than northward range shifts are the main pathways for the snow leopard in the changing climate, since the landform of their habitat allows an upward shift, whereas mountains and valleys would block northward movement. Conservation of the snow leopard should therefore prioritize protecting its current habitat over making movement corridors.

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“…In China, very little research has been conducted on snow leopard habitat use. A winter habitat-use survey of snow leopards in Tomur National Nature Reserve highlighted that prey resources and principal geographic features (ruggedness, bases of cliffs, and stream beds) were the main factors influencing snow leopard habitat use within the 3 000 km 2 study area ( Xu et al, 2012 ). In Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve, a landscape level analysis of snow leopard habitat using the MaxEnt model indicted that annual average temperature and ruggedness were the two main factors influencing habitat selection ( Li et al, 2013 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

基于MaxEnt模型的珠穆朗玛峰国家级自然保护区雪豹生境适宜性评价

et al. 2018

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Habitat evaluation constitutes an important and fundamental step in the management of wildlife populations and conservation policy planning. Geographic information system (GIS) and species presence data provide the means by which such evaluation can be done. Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) is widely used in habitat suitability modeling due to its power of accuracy and additional descriptive properties. To survey snow leopard populations in Qomolangma (Mt. Everest) National Nature Reserve (QNNR), Xizang (Tibet), China, we pooled 127 pugmarks, 415 scrape marks, and 127 non-invasive identifications of the animal along line transects and recorded 87 occurrences through camera traps from 2014–2017. We adopted the MaxEnt model to generate a map highlighting the extent of suitable snow leopard habitat in QNNR. Results showed that the accuracy of the MaxEnt model was excellent (mean AUC=0.921). Precipitation in the driest quarter, ruggedness, elevation, maximum temperature of the warmest month, and annual mean temperature were the main environmental factors influencing habitat suitability for snow leopards, with contribution rates of 20.0%, 14.4%, 13.3%, 8.7%, and 8.2% respectively. The suitable habitat area extended for 7 001.93 km2, representing 22.72% of the whole reserve. The regions bordering Nepal were the main suitable snow leopard habitats and consisted of three separate habitat patches. Our findings revealed that precipitation, temperature conditions, ruggedness, and elevations of around 4 000 m a.s.l. influenced snow leopard preferences at the landscape level in QNNR. We advocate further research and cooperation with Nepal to evaluate habitat connectivity and to explore possible proxies of population isolation among these patches. Furthermore, evaluation of subdivisions within the protection zones of QNNR is necessary to improve conservation strategies and enhance protection.

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Winter habitat use of snow leopards in Tomur National Nature Reserve of Xinjiang, Northwest China

Cited by 10 publications

References 10 publications

Seasonal space use and habitat selection of GPS collared snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in the Mongolian Altai range

Seasonal space use and habitat selection of GPS collared snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in the Mongolian Altai range

Potential Range Shift of Snow Leopard in Future Climate Change Scenarios

基于MaxEnt模型的珠穆朗玛峰国家级自然保护区雪豹生境适宜性评价

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