KATHMANDU — When Pasang Nuru Sherpa recalls his childhood in the quiet village of Pangboche, in the foothills of Sagarmatha, the Nepali name for Everest, his memories take him back…
The Himalayan wolf (Canis lupus chanco) and snow leopard (Panthera uncia) are apex predators in alpine ecosystems. By controlling the numbers of meso-predators and herbivores, these top predators can have…
KATHMANDU — The elusive snow leopard (Panthera uncia), often described as the "ghost of the mountains," has captivated the imagination of researchers, the general public and mountain communities for centuries.…
KATHMANDU — Scientists and government officials have embarked on the uphill task of coming up with a number, or even just a range, for the population of snow leopards in…
KATHMANDU — When discussing conservation in Nepal — home to iconic species such as the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and red panda (Ailurus fulgens) —awareness-raising…
KATHMANDU — A snow leopard found well outside its mountainous habitat in Nepal at the start of this year may have gotten lost while seeking out new territory, a new…
KATHMANDU — Nepal’s government recently launched its new conservation action plan for snow leopards, marking a shift in priority from research and monitoring to conflict resolution and community engagement. The…
KATHMANDU — A Himalayan-dwelling snow leopard that somehow wound up in Nepal’s lowland plains at the start of the year will not be released back into the wild and will…
LALITPUR, Nepal — As the gates to the vet clinic at the Central Zoo in Lalitpur opened, more than two dozen photojournalists thronged the facility and surrounded a metal cage…
KATHMANDU — Until Tuesday afternoon for residents of Urlabari town in the eastern plains of Nepal, snow leopards (Panthera uncia) were animals they knew little about. The leopards they knew…
KATHMANDU — Think of big cats in Nepal, and the majestic tiger likely springs to mind, or maybe even the elusive snow leopard. But Nepal is also home to a…
KATHMANDU — On the slopes of the Himalayas in Nepal, a primeval scene plays out routinely, far from human eyes: a snow leopard lies in wait for its prey, its…
KATHMANDU — Nepali researchers have yet again photographed a snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and common leopard (P. pardus) in the same location in the lap of Mount Gaurishankar in the…
KATHMANDU — In early February 2022, a team of tiger researchers started downloading images from camera traps as part of a population census for the big cat in Nepal. They…
SHAMSHY, Kyrgyzstan — “I was only 9 when I first saw a snow leopard with my father. He was a ranger bringing injured animals found in the mountains to the…
KATHMANDU — News of four cheetah cubs being born recently in India has sparked interest in the species in the conservation community in neighboring Nepal, where the big cat’s historical…
KATHMANDU — When researchers last year confirmed the presence of the manul, the “world’s grumpiest cat,” on the world’s highest mountain, they immediately looked at past records of the elusive…
KATHMANDU — A tiger sits quietly surrounded by trees, observing something in the distance. It then roars and darts toward its target: a leopard that jumps down from a tree.…
KATHMANDU — If you were a grumpy cat, you’d probably want to avoid company. And if you were the world’s grumpiest, as David Attenborough once described the elusive manul, what…
KATHMANDU — The Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve in western Nepal is known for its pristine high-altitude grasslands, and buzzes with helicopter traffic every October and November, at the onset of winter.…
KATHMANDU — Four of the five days of the Nepali Hindu festival of Tihar, which occurs at the same time as the better-known Deepavali, are dedicated to animals. Kukur Tihar,…
In September 2014, Nepali zoologist Madhu Chetri asked his professor Morten Odden a strange question during their fieldwork. "Are you tired?" he asked Odden as the duo from the Inland…
War, drugs, corruption, and terrorism are terms Westerners are more likely to associate with Afghanistan than biodiversity conservation. But Alex Dehgan, a conservation technologist who runs the Washington D.C.-based Conservation…
New research suggests that mountain lions in the western United States play an outsize role in changing their surroundings, leading the authors of the study to suggest that the big…
Big cats around the world face many challenges, from diminishing prey populations and habitat degradation, to poaching for their meat and body parts. A current spike in the killing of…
Update: Since the publication of this story, the IUCN has downgraded the conservation status of snow leopards from Endangered to Vulnerable. We are also interested in hearing informed arguments in…
On Monday, the Nepalese government set fire to more than 4,000 items of confiscated wildlife parts in an attempt to demonstrate zero tolerance for the illegal wildlife trade. The stockpile…
now leopards may be hard to spot in the wild, but they make easy targets for poachers, according to a new report by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network. Between…
The grayish-white form of the ghost of the mountain slinks through the snowcapped slopes of Central Asia. Its remote, harsh habitat, cryptic coat and elusive nature have impeded investigation and…
A very alert snow leopard. Photo credit: Bernard Landgraf, Wikimedia Commons. Conservation work is important not just in tropical rainforests, but also in snow-covered peaks and steep slopes, the home…
Four donors from around the world have pledged $80 million to cat conservation group, Panthera. The money will fund projects working to preserve tigers, lions, jaguars, cheetahs, leopards, snow leopards,…
Scientists knew that snow leopards (Panthera uncia) still survived in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan, but late last year they captured the first ever photos. Camera traps in the…