Rapid population recovery and density rank top in the country! Explore the survival status of snow leopards in Wolong →

Wolong area of Giant Panda National Park is the original home of wild giant pandas and one of the few existing habitats. Its predecessor, Wolong National Nature Reserve, is one of the earliest nature reserves in China with giant pandas as the target species.

In fact, Wolong's ability to have giant pandas is inseparable from its good natural environment and a healthy and complete ecosystem composed of rich animal and plant species. In such a vibrant natural homeland, giant pandas have a wide range of wildlife neighbors, including world-class rare species and even national treasure species. Snow leopard, known as the "most beautiful feline in the world", is one of them. Some experts judge that the snow leopard population in Wolong shows very high vitality. Let's go there to see the survival status of snow leopards.

The population density of snow leopards in this area ranks first in China

In 2009, snow leopards were first photographed in Wolong National Nature Reserve at an altitude of 4430 meters. Since then, the scientific research team has not only monitored and studied the wild giant pandas distributed in the primitive forests in the middle and high altitude areas, but also paid close attention to the survival status of the equally rare high-altitude species snow leopard in the alpine meadows and flowing rock beaches distributed above the forest line.

In 2016, Wolong National Nature Reserve launched a special investigation on snow leopards, allocated personnel and set up a special "leopard chasing team". Shi Xiaogang, a senior engineer, was the first member of the team.

In order to complete the background survey of snow leopard population in Wolong area, Shi Xiaogang's team has finally obtained first-hand reliable and detailed data of snow leopard population from relying entirely on artificial feet to carry out field search and observation, climbing mountains and mountains to install infrared cameras, tracking from the dense and closed virgin forest with an altitude of more than 2000 meters to the white snow peak with steep walls above 5000 meters.

Shi Xiaogang, senior engineer of Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve Management Bureau: Through the recovery of snow leopard image data and the comparison of stripes, we found that there are about 35 adult snow leopards in Wolong, and about 11 sub adult and young snow leopards. It is preliminarily determined that there are about 46 Wolong snow leopards.

Monitoring the snow leopard population in Wolong National Nature Reserve is often much more difficult than in other snow leopard distribution areas. According to the researchers, snow leopards are mostly located in steep and complex areas with an altitude of more than 3300 meters. Qionglai Mountains, where this area is located, is the easternmost edge of Hengduan Mountains, the longest and widest north-south mountain system in China. The "steep folds and blocking roads" is a reflection of the geographical environment of Hengduan Mountains.

As the deep and long canyons cut numerous insurmountable gaps between the mountains, the snow leopard habitat here is patchy and island like. Therefore, Qionglai Mountain Snow Leopard is considered to be the most distinctive snow leopard population, and also the most difficult monitoring object to pursue. Every time researchers deploy an infrared camera and expand the survey area of one square kilometer, they face a huge challenge. In this working environment, a grid and full coverage snow leopard monitoring system has been successfully established.

Shi Xiaogang, senior engineer of Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve Management Bureau: 96 infrared trigger cameras were deployed in the special survey of snow leopards, and 2 to 3 infrared trigger cameras were deployed every 25 square kilometers. We have increased it to 800 square kilometers on the original basis, and the original survey area is 365 square kilometers.

What is the quantitative concept of 46 snow leopards in the nature reserve with a total area of 2000 square kilometers and a linear distance of only about 100 kilometers from downtown Chengdu and a suitable habitat area of less than 500 square kilometers?

He Tingmei, Deputy Director of Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve Administration, Senior Engineer: From the monitoring of snow leopards, the data we have is the highest density known in China.

Snow leopard has a large number of single births, high survival rate and rapid population recovery

The existence of large carnivores such as snow leopards means that the region where they are located has a complete and rich food chain from low to high levels. In Wolong, the four beasts of traditional Chinese culture, jackals, tigers and leopards, are all distributed except tigers. How can we support so many large carnivores? We may be able to see some clues from a female snow leopard called "Hero Mother" that has been tracked and monitored by the scientific research team for many years.

This group of pictures in the video was shot in August 2017. On the same day, infrared cameras were deployed at three points at an altitude of 3500 meters in the Weijiagou area of Wolong to record the scene of a female snow leopard coming to visit with three three month old cubs. On the grass under a rock heap, the mother of the snow leopard got up and left to look for food after breast-feeding for her cubs, leaving a precious image of three young snow leopards in front of the camera. The researchers named the mother of this snow leopard "Wei" after the discovery site.

In September 2019, near a natural cave at an altitude of about 4100 meters in Weijiagou area, an infrared camera once again captured the figure of snow leopard mother "Wei". This time, "Wei" still took three cubs, whose visual age was about half a year old. This is the second litter of snow leopard successfully bred by its mother recorded by infrared camera.

The process of "screen meeting" between snow leopard mother "Wei" and researchers is not over. In 2022, snow leopard mother "Wei" once again appeared in front of the infrared camera with three cubs. It takes about a year and a half to two years for snow leopards to bear young until they master hunting skills and live independently from their mothers. According to this rule, the snow leopard mother "Wei" gave birth to a third litter of three cubs at the end of 2020 or early 2021.

In combination with the image content continuously captured by multiple point infrared cameras, the snow leopard mother "Wei" gave birth to three litters of nine cubs in five years, all of which survived healthily. This case seems to be just a case. In fact, in the world of snow leopards, because they live in the harsh alpine mountains, there are relatively few herbivores distributed in the same region, which makes hunting difficult. The mortality rate of snow leopard cubs is usually very high before the age of one year, and some experts estimate that this may exceed 80%. The snow leopard population in Wolong shows very high population vitality.

Shi Xiaogang, Senior Engineer of Wolong National Nature Reserve Administration of Sichuan Province: We have found that there are at least 6 litters of snow leopards with pups in Wolong through infrared camera monitoring in recent years. Basically, there are 2 to 3 pups in each litter.

So, where is the unique survival secret of Wolong Snow Leopard? A closer look at the infrared camera data will show that even though the infrared camera at the same point of the snow leopard is usually deployed at an altitude of more than 4000 meters, there will still be many wild animals outside the snow leopard in the mirror, including blue sheep, takin, green tailed rainbow pheasant, Tibetan snow pheasant, etc., which almost all exist in the snow leopard's recipe list. In addition, Wolong Nature Reserve has been under strict protection for 60 years, creating a good habitat for many wild animals, including giant pandas and snow leopards, which is less human interference and suitable for living and breeding.

Li Sheng, a researcher from the School of Life Sciences of Peking University: An adult female snow leopard breeds about two to four cubs per litter. Whether these cubs can grow up successfully depends on the richness of food resources in this place and the degree of human interference. In Qionglai Mountain, our current monitoring records show that some adult female snow leopards can reproduce continuously and successfully, and three or more cubs in each litter can survive successfully. On the one hand, it reflects that the prey population here is very abundant, on the other hand, it also reflects that this place is less disturbed by human beings, and people have played a role in protecting it.

(CCTV News Client)

key word: Snow Leopard repopulation Tibetan Snow Chicken Forest line Closure