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“These magnificent creatures can reside at (altitudes as much as) 20,000 ft, in rarefied air, in minus 30 levels centigrade,” he says.
However regardless of being so nicely tailored to their mountain house, snow leopards are beneath risk.
However whereas their numbers are small, these elusive predators come into battle with native farmers once they prey on livestock, inflicting “an enormous financial loss” to the farmers, who retaliate by killing snow leopards, Hussain says.
CNN spoke to Hussain about his experiences defending these lovely huge cats and the way he is discovered methods for them to reside alongside native communities.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
CNN: Regardless of your dedication to snow leopards, you’ve got by no means seen one within the wild. Are you able to inform us a couple of shut encounter?
Shafqat Hussain: The primary time I heard a snow leopard roar was nearly 14, 15 years in the past … I used to be conducting surveys with my assistant and we abruptly heard this roar and our ft simply froze within the ice … You possibly can hear it echoing via the valley. It was nearly like a encompass sound system … We had a basic thought the place it was coming from, however as a result of the cat is so properly camouflaged we couldn’t see it. Nevertheless it was a really exhilarating expertise, simply (to) know that we’re within the presence of this magnificent species out within the wild. I do know they’re there and I get satisfaction out of the truth that they’re watching me, (even) if I am not watching them.
Are snow leopards harmful to folks?
There isn’t a reported incident of them attacking a human being. So not like widespread leopards or tigers or lions which pose mortal hazard to human life, for some purpose, snow leopards by no means assault human beings (however) they do assault their livestock and therefore incur injury. (In Baltistan) residing with snow leopards is to reside with this fixed risk. Ninety-five per cent of those folks … preserve livestock they usually even have small agricultural fields, and once in a while their livestock will get attacked by predators, comparable to snow leopards. That basically brings an enormous financial loss in relative phrases for these folks. So then they retaliate by attacking and killing these predators.
What methods do you utilize to scale back the battle between people and snow leopards?
First is the insurance coverage or the compensation schemes, as a result of there may be loads of demand from native folks to financially compensate them for his or her losses. Individuals argue that they aren’t inherently towards these predators … Their predominant demand is that if we predict that these lovely predators … are public property and particularly state property, then state and public ought to do one thing about the associated fee that these animals incur to the native communities.
The opposite technique is to assemble predator-proof corrals (for livestock). We’re additionally implementing a conservation program and making an attempt to instil conservation ethics within the youthful technology of the native society. Finally you’ll be able to handle animals … however except we get the human (aspect of the) equation proper, it is very troublesome to maintain any conservation effort in the long term. So approaching human-wildlife battle is approaching the issue from the eyes of the native folks. As an anthropologist, that is what you are educated to do.
Why is it necessary to preserve snow leopards?
Snow leopards are thought of what we name a keystone predator, that means that they’ve a vital function to play in sustaining the integrity and stability of the ecosystem. So by checking and limiting the variety of herbivores which might be current on this fragile mountain ecosystem, snow leopards can test overgrazing and therefore land erosion and soil erosion that may consequence from it.
Do we have to make extra space for nature and different species, like snow leopards?
Sure, I feel we have now to, in any other case we have now little or no probability of surviving. It is now turning into very clear that we can not ignore that our lives are intertwined with many different lives that exist in nature … I feel an actual adaptation is required on the stage of our considering. By means of local weather change, via pumping in novel compounds and pollution within the ambiance, via genetically modifying nature, human beings have actually altered the very cloth of what we name nature. We have to open ourselves to the chance that this Earth was made not just for Homo sapiens, however for different beings as nicely. And the way can we reside with these beings in a extra democratic, in a extra fruitful and peaceable manner.
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