Four snow leopards captured staying together in Sichuan

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It is learned recently from the First Symposium on Protecting Snow Leopards of Hengduan Mountains that Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve had for the first time captured four snow leopards staying together.

Infrared cameras installed in three sites within the reserve captured the scenes of one mother leopard appearing together with her three cubs.

The cameras in the three sites altogether captured five videos of them, of which three were filmed on three June days. Some of the videos show the mother entering the frame slowly with her three cubs who were walking and looking around. Others show the three cubs sitting on the grass and eating their feet while their mother was looking for food somewhere else.

Snow leopards are solitary animals and they usually move away from their mothers and start to live alone at about 2. Experts estimated the three cubs captured are about three months old.

In June, the reserve’s scientific researchers of wild life deployed infrared cameras in areas totaling 132 square kilometers where altitudes range from 4,000 to 5,700 meters, covering all the five habitats and potential habitats of snow leopards in the reserve. This is the largest surveillance of snow leopards ever in the history of Wolong National Nature Reserve.

These cameras, which make non-stop surveillance, have captured a lot of valuable images of snow leopards living in the wild.

Experts on the protection of snow leopards said at the symposium that snow leopards in China are most densely populated in Wolong, demonstrating the reserve's amply food supply for wild animals, healthy and complete ecosystem and good environment.

Sponsored by Sichuan Provincial Department of Forestry, the symposium was attended by experts, people who are in charge of snow leopard conservation organizations and those who are in charge of nature reserves in Sichuan where snow leopards are concentrated. Participants made in-depth exchanges on the state of protection of snow leopards of Hengduan Mountains and the experiences in monitoring the animal. The symposium also passed the Declaration on the Conservation and Research of Wolong’s Snow Leopards.