China: First time grabbing a snow leopard photo

Researchers took pictures of about five wild snow leopards on the top of a mountain in northwestern China. This is the first time that Chinese scientists have photographed this rare animal.

Ma Minh, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, said this was an encouraging achievement, because it was rare to find this predator.

They often live on high snow peaks from 2700 to 6000m or large plateaus in China, Afghanistan, India and Nepal.

Snow leopard.
According to estimates by the International Snow Leopard Protection Association (ISLT), half of the world's 3,500 snow leopard are currently living in China - specifically at the high peaks in Xinjiang and Western provinces. Tibetan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan.

32 photos of snow leopard were taken from October 18, 2005 to December 27, 2005 under Mount Tomur, 7435m high in northwestern China. These photos were taken by 36 infrared automatic cameras, scattered scattered near a valley below the top of the mountain.

Based on these findings, the actual number of leopards could be larger than the 750-child estimate of Dr. George Schaller, an expert of the World Conservation Organization (WCS), conducted in the 1980s.

This is part of a research project on Xinjiang snow leopard.

Ma Minh, who is also a member of the project, said that capturing images of leopards will contribute significantly to their study of customs, distribution, quantity and habitat.

It is known that snow leopard is a rare animal, being seriously threatened by humans.

Their fur and skin can be sold for over 10,000 yen ($ 1,200) in the black market. Experts are concerned that products from them may be sold outside the international market.

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