“There are now 61 snow leopards in Uzbekistan’s largest nature reserve, more than double the 2015 count,” reports The Doomslayer. Uzbekistan is a country in Central Asia that borders Afghanistan and Kazakhstan.
In the last four years, snow leopards have also increased 62% in number in a mountainous state in India (Himachal Pradesh).
The snow leopard population has also doubled since the late 1990s in Kazakhstan, the world’s ninth largest country. Kazakhstan is a large, mostly empty country, with over a million square miles of land — bigger than western Europe — but only about 20 million people.
As the BBC notes, “Snow leopards roam across 12 countries, from Mongolia to Bhutan, often through politically sensitive regions. Protecting them requires cooperation…”Since a third of the world’s snow leopards are distributed within 100km (62 miles) from international borders, a snow leopard protected in one country is at a risk in another”…Globally, there are estimated to be between 4,000 and 6,500 snow leopards in the wild.”
“Uzbekistan is the range state with the smallest snow leopard population, on the westernmost edge” of their habitat, notes a scientific journal. “The fine for hunting a snow leopard is 300 times the minimum wage for citizens and legal entities of Uzbekistan, and 40,000 US dollars for foreign citizens….In Uzbekistan, the snow leopard is found” only in the Western Tien Shan mountains and the Western Pamir-Altay mountain system. “Snow leopard habitats in Uzbekistan” border the neighboring countries of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. “The total area of snow leopard habitat in Uzbekistan” is around 4,000 square miles, or “about 0.36% of the global range” inhabited by snow leopards.
Amur leopards are making a comeback in Russia’s Far East, multiplying five-fold.
Bobcats recently returned to New Jersey after being absent from the state for 50 years.
Jaguars are growing in number in Mexico and Argentina.
Bengal tigers are making a comeback in Bangladesh.
