Snow leopards are so enigmatic in nature and exist in one of the most unforgiving and remote environment of our planet that encountering with snow leopard in the wild is a million dollar sight. This elusive personality of snow leopard led one of the outstanding wildlife biologists of the world to attribute this as “Imperiled Phantomâ€.
In Nov-Dec. 2010, a sum of 643 photographs counting a group of 3 snow leopards (2 sub adults with a mother) were photographed during an exhaustive camera trapping session of 560 nights in KNP that was conducted by the Snow Leopard Foundation, Pakistan in association with the Directorate of KNP and Gilgit-Baltistan Forest and Wildlife Department. The cameras also captured some other wild species of the wilderness.
non-profit organization, The Snow Leopard Foundation (SLF) is devoted to conserve viable populations of snow leopards and other wild carnivores as an integral part of landscapes across Pakistan, while improving the social and economic provisions of the people who share the this flimsy mountain ecosystem with the wildlife. It has pioneered state-of-the-art research tools in Pakistan and operating in Gilgit-Baltistan, Khybger Pakhtunkhaw, and Azad Jamu and Kashmir. The SLF works in partnership with the Snow Leopard Trust and Panthera, the two foremost international wild cat conservation organizations, and operates in three core sectors: research, monitoring community based conservation programs, and conservation education and awareness. This study was undertaken in KNP from November, 23 to December 31, 2010 and was meant at assessing the status of snow leopard as well as other carnivores, their key prey species, and human-carnivore conflict. The study also tested influence of different kind of baits on camera trapping success.