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Nepalese Student in NZ Helping to Protect Endangered Leopards
Friday, 27 November 2009
Nepalese PhD student Achyut Aryal, enrolled at the Institute for Natural Sciences at Massey University, is leading a research project that he hopes will help endangered snow leopards in his home country.
The team hope to improve the survival odds of the endangered snow leopard in Nepal by venturing into the remote Himalayas to study its main prey, the Bharal or blue sheep.
Achyut Aryal says it is the first use of global positioning satellite technology to track the Bharal, and the first use of the technology for conservation purposes in Nepal.
Detailed information on population estimates and distribution for blue sheep and snow leopards is vital for conservation management, says Associate Professor Dianne Brunton, co-supervisor of the study and head of the Ecology and Conservation Group at the institute.
Mr Aryal and co-researcher Massey nutritional ecology professor David Raubenheimer are currently in the Annapurna Conservation Area of Nepal, performing the initial stages of the work. It took the men several days of travel by foot and on horseback to reach the study site near the Tibetan border.
Population estimates for the snow leopard worldwide are currently between 5000 and 10,000, with numbers declining due to being hunted for fur and as a trophy, being killed by farmers because of its reputation as a livestock predator, and loss of food due to trophy hunting.
Satellite tracking has previously been used by Massey scientists in the study of godwits migrating from Alaska to New Zealand, and frogs. Dr Brunton hopes New Zealand school pupils will become involved in the snow leopard and blue sheep study next year by observing the movement of the satellite-tracked animals on classroom computers.
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