Snow leopard Panthera uncia predation on livestock and wild prey in a mountain valley in northern Nepal: implications for conservation management

Abstract

In a human-dominated world, conserving viable populations of large carnivores is becoming increasingly difficult because large carnivores prey on livestock, kill and injure humans and compete with humans by preying on attractive game species (Treves & Karanth 2003). Predation by snow leopards Panthera uncia on domestic stock is a typical example of the human-wildlife conflict (Bagchi & Mishra 2006), and it is considered a main challenge for developing proper management programmes for the species (Mishra et al. 2003, Jackson et al. 2010).