How to protect snow leopards in Nepal? There's an app for that

High up in the Himalayan mountains, snow leopards roam the lands. At altitudes of up to 5,000 metres, the air is thin and the weather is unforgiving. But this rare cat has adapted magnificently to the harsh conditions. Its thick, spotted coat provides camouflage and insulates it from the freezing cold. Its long tail allows it to run and jump at high speed across steep, rocky terrain. 

But snow leopards are under threat. Human-animal conflict, as well as loss of habitat and poaching, threatens the survival of these elusive mountain dwellers. Snow leopards are often attacked by herders in retaliation for hunting their livestock. The WWF estimates that around 4.000 remain, spread thinly across twelve countries in central and southern Asia. 

Back in Wageningen, senior data scientist Arun Pratihast has been working on a way to protect snow leopards: an app that predicts the most likely areas of human-wildlife conflict. His work is focused on the remote Nar-Phu valley, in the high north of Nepal, his country of origin. This valley is home to around twenty snow leopards. They share the mountains with hundreds of villagers herding their livestock, mostly yak and sheep.

'Leopards need to eat, and communities need to survive as well', says Pratihast. 'People in the Nar-Phu valley rely on cattle for their livelihood. They generally tolerate snow leopards, except when these predators kill large numbers of their animals. In some cases, a single leopard can kill fifty or sixty sheep in one night, prompting people to retaliate by hunting and killing it. I wanted to find a way to make the conflict more digestible, so that people can take it.'

Pratihast has been developing and testing mobile tools for conservation since 2011. He first tested these tools with wildlife rangers in Ethiopia to help them track biodiversity. Later research in Peru showed that indigenous communities could use mobile apps with offline navigation, GPS, and geotagged data to monitor deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.

From 2017 onwards, Pratihast brought his idea to life. He started a pilot project in Nepal and secured funding from the German Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU). He then developed mobile apps inspired by the apps used in Peru. WUR researcher Christina Cappello joined his project in 2019. Cappello had worked on the protection of big cats in Nicaragua and knew all about the importance of satellite imagery and mapping for conservation efforts.

In the apps, inhabitants of the Nar-Phu Valley report signs of snow leopards, like pug marks and urine traces. The researchers then map the locations of cattle and corrals to pinpoint where confrontations with leopards are most likely to occur. 'In those locations, we build predator-proof corrals: metal cages with floodlights, which keep snow leopards at bay', Pratihast explains. 'Six of those have already been built, and we want to realise two or three more.' It seems to be working so far: since the start of the project, no mass killings of livestock have been reported.

Building even more predator-proof corrals might seem like an obvious step, but it would be difficult and expensive to do so. The Nar-Phu valley is so remote that materials can only be brought in by helicopter or by horse. Cappello recalls her journey in 2019: 'We flew to Kathmandu, the capital city, and then drove for a day. We switched to a four-wheel drive that took us along the cliffs, up to a base camp at 2.600 metres. Hiking from there to the Nar-Phu valley took another two to three days.'

The app goes beyond tracking the location of snow leopards and corrals, as it also provides quick compensation to farmers. If a sheep gets killed by a snow leopard, the farmer can call a member of the local Human-Snow Leopard Conservation committee. Each village has such a committee, with five to six members who have been trained to work as a citizen scientist. They will come to the scene to establish which type of animal was killed, how and where, and so on. All the information can be uploaded in the app, along with photos.

'The committee has its own bank account, so it can provide fast relief money to the farmer', Pratihast says. 'Normally, farmers have to travel long distances to report an incident. That takes days and involves a lot of paperwork, and it takes a very long time for the compensation money to start flowing. So members of the community are happy to use our system. And in turn, secure livestock and faster compensation reduce the anger that leads to retaliation against snow leopards.'

The commitment of local users in the Nar-Phu valley has been vital, says Pratihast: 'They have submitted data every month, for three to four years already. This is crucial, to have such a long-term data set from people who know and understand the area.' 'And we are really doing this together', Cappello adds. 'They helped us design the apps and gave us a lot of feedback.'

In the coming years, the WUR researchers are hoping to do even more to enable human-snow leopard coexistence. Satellite imagery can help by registering factors like vegetation, elevation and snow cover. These data, along with observations from the ground, could be used to refine the risk maps that show where conflicts with wildlife might occur. And they might even apply a similar system to other animals in Nepal, such as blue sheep. Pratihast: 'I have a lot of wild ideas.'