The Afghan snow leopards

Wisdom Quarterly; ABCNews.com; NationalGeographic.com; TravelandLeisure.com

Hemis National Park is best for snow leopards, Tibetan argali sheep, ibex... popularize the plight of the snow leopard and show travelers what’s at stake, researchers from the US-based Snow Leopard Conservancy have teamed up with tour operators to organize winter treks through the park located in Buddhist Ladakh, a trans-Himalayan region in the northwestern Indian state of Jammu-Kashmir (travelandleisure.com).

 
Tracking the Elusive Snow Leopard of Afghanistan

TJ Winick and Mary Compton

Flight to Asia (WeGoTwo/flickr)

HIMALAYAN RANGE - In Afghanistan, one of the most dangerous places in the world, Boone Smith is on a mission.

 

Not for the military, but for wildlife organizations that want to track down the most elusive big cat on the planet: The snow leopard of Afghanistan.

 

“This was my Holy Grail for animals I wanted to catch,” he said.

 

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and USAID challenged Smith, a fourth-generation big-cat trapper from Idaho, to capture and collar a snow leopard in Afghanistan in just 20 days.

 

“They’re borderline mythical, legendary,” Smith said. More

• First Pictures: Snow Leopards rebounding in Afghanistan
• VIDEO: New Zealand dogs learn how to drive cars
• SLIDESHOW: India's best wildlife safaris

A snow leopard recently photographed prowling the mountains of Afghanistan has plenty of company, as revealed by the first camera-trap pictures of the big cats in the war-torn country. The pictures, taken by a team led by the Wildlife Conservation Society, show that a surprisingly robust population of possibly a hundred animals is prowling the remote Wakhan Corridor (see map). Previous estimates have suggested that perhaps only 4,500 to 7,500 snow leopards -- considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature -- live throughout the mountain ranges of Central Asia.