Monitoring of snow leopards in the Sarychat-Ertash State Reserve (Kyrgyzstan), between 2011 and 2019, through scat genotyping

Abstract

Snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are a keystone species of Asia’s high mountain ecosystem. The species is assessed as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and is elusive, limiting accurate population assessments that could inform conservation actions. Non-invasive genetic monitoring conducted by citizen scientists offers avenues to provide key data on this species. From 2011 to 2019, OSI-Panthera citizen science expeditions tracked signs of presence of snow leopards and collected scat samples along transects in the main valleys and crests of the Sarychat-Ertash State Reserve (Kyrgyzstan). Scat samples were genotyped at twenty autosomal microsatellite loci and at a X/Y locus (sex identification), allowing an estimation of a minimum of 17 individuals. The genetic recapture of 12 of them provided indications of individuals’ habitat use throughout the reserve. We found putative family relationships between several individuals; however, further research is needed to validate these findings. Our results demonstrate the potential of a citizen science program to collect meaningful data that can inform the conservation management of snow leopards.