Determining Snow Leopard Populations using Camera Traps

Snow Leopard Conservancy - Conservation Program

Determining Snow Leopard Populations using Camera Traps

For the latest information on camera trapping see SLC’s Camera Trapping Handbook

The Snow Leopard Conservancy’s Ladakh staff has spent three winters, beginning in 2002 in Hemis National Park, Ladakh, India, developing and initiating a camera-trapping study and census of snow leopards in the region. The tented base camp lies near Rumbak village, where temperatures plunge to -20 degrees F, severely testing the camera batteries, not to mention the scientists. Nalgene bottles filled with scalding water keep our feet warm, and by morning the water is frozen! Relief is provided via periodic visits to Leh for the comforts of a heated room and hot “bucket” bath.

We’re researching camera-traps as a non-invasive way of obtaining reliable population estimates of snow leopards in a given area, by identifying the individuals who pass through the camera stations.

This past winter (2003-2004), we mounted an intensive effort to census the snow leopards in an approximately 35 square-mile study area. Volunteer Barbara Palmer, on leave from her job as animal keeper at the San Francisco Zoo, assisted the team from mid-February through mid-March. Another volunteer, Jerry Roe, assisted during the first winter, and has been instrumental in developing a methodology for the difficult task of identifying individual cats from the photos.

This season we had seventeen TrailMaster camera stations with two cameras at each, at elevations up to 16,000 feet. We placed them along frequently visited trails, near scrape and rock scents. To date we have more than 250 photos, including foxes, the extremely rare lynx, wolf, and a female snow leopard with two cubs! As the image on our home page attests, the cats don’t seem to mind the camera – unlike the foxes, which are highly skittish and do not like the flash. We are now scanning the images, with the help of our newest volunteer, Joyce Robinson, and analyzing the data. Our report will be posted this summer.

Please visit the News section of our website for first-hand “Letters from the Field.”

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