Snow Leopard, the Rarest Host of the Central Asian Highlands, Caught on Camera in Kyrgyzstan
The State Natural Park "Chon-Kemin" (Kyrgyzstan) summed up the monitoring of a network of camera traps installed on inaccessible ridges. The lenses of hidden cameras caught the rarest owner of the highlands — the snow leopard, as well as a whole family of Tien Shan ulars (mountain turkeys).
The snow leopard is included in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as an endangered species. In Central Asia, its appearance on the territory of protected parks serves as the main "biomarker": if a predator is recorded regularly, it means that a stable population of wild ungulates and a clean ecosystem remain in the region.
In addition to the leopard, camera traps captured Himalayan ulars with grown-up chicks at an altitude of over 3,000 meters above sea level. Environmentalists note that the use of autonomous cameras makes it possible to explore the hidden life of high-altitude fauna without human intervention and helps coordinate anti-poaching patrols in the region's transboundary mountain systems.
