The Snow Leopard: Peter Matthiessen

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Lovari, S., J. Minder, F. Ferretti, N. Mucci, E. Randi, B. Pellizzi. 2013. Common and snow leopards share prey, but not habitats: competition avoidance by large predators?. Journal of Zoology, 291(2): 127-135. This is one of the most intelligent, beautifully written books I’ve read. I enjoyed every moment of Matthiessen’s physical, emotional, and spiritual journey through Nepal and Tibet. His descriptions of the landscape, the villages, his relationships with the people he meets and travels with, the wildlife he sees, his quest for spiritual enlightenment, and his deep sorrow at his wife’s death the previous year, all are written in the most inspiring and honest language.

Serves as the first and only comprehensive book on the biology, behavior, and conservation status of the snow leopard This book tells the story of a hidden valley deep in the Himalayas and the snow leopard that protects it. The snow leopard is growing old and needs to find a successor. Will she succeed? Rationale for adopting community-based biodiversity protection and management models in snow leopard range countriesA non-white MC. I don't know where this takes place. Mongolia? It looks like Mongolia to me. http://moontrug.com/wp-content/upload... They usually live in remote mountainous habitats 3,000-5,0000m high, with steep cliffs, ridges and ravines. They also occur in dry open forest and scrubland, especially in the winter when they follow their prey lower down the mountains to where there is less snow so the prey can feed better. They can travel around 12km a day (7km if slowed by more difficult rugged terrain). Sometimes it's not till I finish a book that I realize how much I am in love with it. That's the case with this lovely travelogue, which smartly does not pretend to be anything that it is not. It's not given any frills or decoration, other than beautiful and inimitable descriptions of nature. It is a humble record of a man's journey through the Himalayas and his concurrent spiritual journey. To ask after the object of the journey is missing the point—and I hope this doesn't sound cheesy, as it does not come across cheesily at all in the book—the journey is the point.

Fox, J. 1994. Snow leopard conservation in the wild - a comprehensive perspective on a low density and highly fragmented population. Proc. of Seventh Int. Snow Leopard Symposium, 1: 3-15. In the autumn of 1973, the naturalist and writer Peter Matthiessen and the zoologist George Schaller set out on a gruelling trek into the Himalayas. They were headed toward the Dolpo region of the Tibetan plateau. Schaller wanted to study Himalayan blue sheep; Matthiessen hoped to see a snow leopard—a large, majestic cat with fur the color of smoke. Snow leopards, which belong to the genus Panthera, inhabit some of the highest mountain ranges in the world, and their camouflage is so perfectly tuned that they appear ethereal, as though made from storm clouds. Two of them feature on the Tibetan flag of independence, representing harmony between the temporal and spiritual planes. Distinguishable skull features from other large felids are: an overall shortness of the skull, an elevation of the frontal area, more rounded orbits, longer postorbital and zygomatic processes, longer and smaller infraorbital foraman, wider mesopterygoid fossa, flatter osseous bullae, and a marked shortness of palate. In males, the mean anteroposterior width of the upper canine at alveolus is slightly larger than in the females. However, the mean lateromedial width across postorbital constriction and across braincase is slightly larger in females. ( Christiansen and Harris, 2012; Ognev, 1935) Subchapter 16.1: The Trophy Hunting Program: Enhancing Snow Leopard Prey Populations Through Community Participation

I will say this—when I started the book, I wondered if I would continue. The start is too theoretical, too impersonal. I did not like the start. Don’t give up too soon! Through habitat shifts, loss, and fragmentation, climate change is now emerging as another threat to this space-requiring species. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the average annual temperature in South Asia and Tibet will increase by 3 to 4 degrees Celsius by 2080 to 2099, along with an annual increase in precipitation. Due to these warmer and wetter conditions, the forest treeline is expected to ascend into alpine areas, which is the snow leopards preferred habitat. Results indicate that roughly 30% of their habitat in the Himalaya may be lost because of this shifting treeline. This will cause overlap in species range, where the snow leopard will then have to contend for resources with species better adapted to forest habitats such as leopards ( Panthera pardus), wild dogs ( Cuon alpinus) and, in Bhutan, tigers ( Panthera tigris). ( Christensen, et al., 2007; Forrest, et al., 2012)

It was late fall, with winter a whisper away. Would they make it before the snow season turned the world impassable? Would they see the snow leopard? The element of suspense at the heart of this story exerts a mighty pull.One day he comes across his fellow villagers wanting to kill a captured snow leopard, which has killed many of the villager’s sheep and goats. Rinzin, who is only 16, makes it his mission to save the life of this beautiful snow leopard.

Stunning . . . Fiercely felt and magnificently written . . . [Matthiessen] has expressed with uncommon candor and no prospect of relief, a longing which keeps the soul striving and alert in us all.”— Washington PostSnow leopards prey upon the blue sheep (bharal) of Tibet and the Himalayas, as well as the mountain ibex found over most of the rest of their range. Though these powerful predators can kill animals three times their weight, they also eat smaller fare, such as marmots, hares, and game birds.