A new report from the World Wildlife Foundation brings grim news: Should global warming continue unchecked, snow leopards—already an endangered species—may lose up to a third of their natural habitat. Moreover, this environmental decline would also disrupt the delicate water cycle necessary to provide water for 330 million people in the area.
Warming environment, human encroachment
Between 4,000 and 6,400 snow leopards currently exist—a 20% drop in population size from 16 years ago, thanks to human encroachment on snow leopard territory, declines in natural prey, and poaching. But the snow leopard’s habitat, found in the highest areas of countries like China, Russia, Afghanistan, Nepal, and India, is set to decrease at an accelerated rate as a result of climate change.
“Increasing temperatures are expected to shift the tree line higher up the mountains, foster the growth of plant species that are less palatable for the snow leopard’s natural prey species and livestock, expand the area suitable for crops, increase aridity, alter the timing of water availability, and melt the glaciers and permafrost,” wrote the report’s authors.
The shift in tree line is especially devastating, as snow leopards hunt in the rocky terrain above the trees. Perhaps even worse, it makes it easier for humans to encroach on snow leopard territory for the purpose of farming and raising livestock. It may even drive humans to do this, because warm temperatures makes lower regions more arid and therefore less habitable.
Such contact increases competition for snow leopard prey, and greatly increases the likelihood that humans will kill snow leopards in retaliation for lost herds.
Other potential losses
But snow leopards aren’t the only species at stake: Humans, too, will likely suffer the consequences. Rising temperatures could reduce the amount of water available to the 330 million people living downstream of snow leopard territory.
“For example, rising temperatures will melt the snow, glaciers and permafrost in snow leopard territory, which will affect the timing and flow of the water downstream. The warmer climate could also encourage more plant and tree growth in higher parts of the big cat’s range, which would contribute to expected changes in patterns of evapotranspiration, since the plants would suck up more water, which would then evaporate into the atmosphere leaving less to run off into rivers and lakes,” wrote the WWF.
According to the report, the WWF is already taking some actions, but is calling for more to be done. The extremely critical snow leopard territory covers nearly 660,000 square miles, of which less than 14 percent has been studied or mapped.
“It is critical that additional research is conducted to fill these gaps,” wrote the WWF. “Effective snow leopard conservation is dependent on knowing more about this icon of the high mountains and of the mountain environments themselves.”
Conservation of humanity likely depends on the same thing.
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Image credit: Thinkstock
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