{"id":35693,"date":"2026-08-14T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/?p=35693"},"modified":"2026-08-14T07:38:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:38:43","slug":"four-snow-leopards-wearing-gps-collars-in-nepal-sent-back-4707-signals-and-three-of-them-crossed-into-china-and-india-so-often-that-the-conservation-map-no-longer-fits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/four-snow-leopards-wearing-gps-collars-in-nepal-sent-back-4707-signals-and-three-of-them-crossed-into-china-and-india-so-often-that-the-conservation-map-no-longer-fits\/35693\/","title":{"rendered":"Four snow leopards wearing GPS collars in Nepal sent back 4,707 signals, and three of them crossed into China and India so often that the conservation map no longer fits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

High in the Himalayas, GPS tracking collars fitted to four snow leopards<\/a> revealed that the elusive cats command home ranges up to 97 times larger than scientists previously recorded \u2014 routinely ignoring the international borders between Nepal, India, and China<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does a national border mean to a cat following prey along a mountain ridge? Very little, and the findings suggest that conservation maps must follow the animal rather than stop at the edge of a park or country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four cats and 4,707 signals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Researchers fitted GPS collars<\/a> to four snow leopards between November 2013 and May 2017. Their devices transmitted for periods ranging from 20 to 659 days, producing 4,707 locations across 1,239 tracking days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work was anything but routine. Five captures required 3,004 trap nights, and the shortest-lived collar stopped sending GPS positions after only 20 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The borders kept disappearing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On a paper map, the border looks solid. In the GPS tracks<\/a>, three of the four cats crossed an international boundary five to seven times each, spending 10.3% to 34.3% of their recorded time in neighboring India or China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lapchhemba made five trips into China\u2019s Qomolangma National Nature Preserve<\/a> during her dispersal period. Yalung and Ghangjenjwenga entered India\u2019s Khangchendzonga National Park<\/a>, with 49.7% and 28.2% of their estimated home ranges overlapping India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Snow
A snow leopard in its high-altitude habitat; new GPS data show home ranges up to 97 times larger than once thought.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Home ranges grew dramatically<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For the three cats tracked long enough for home-range analysis, the more biologically focused (aLoCoH) method<\/a> \u2014 which maps animal territories like a tight-fitting glove by excluding unused terrain \u2014 produced estimates of 102 to 312.2 sq. km (about 39 to 121 sq. miles). By contrast, a broader minimum convex polygon method \u2014 which draws a simple perimeter connecting the outermost tracking points like a rubber band stretched around pegs \u2014 expanded those estimates from 210.7 to 1,031.6 sq. km (about 81 to 398 sq. miles).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared with older VHF-based estimates of 11 to 36 sq. km in Nepal, the similar-method results were six to 97 times larger. Not a small revision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology changed the picture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Earlier VHF collars required researchers to get close enough to detect a radio signal in terrain that is steep, remote, and difficult to cross. That limitation could leave huge blank spaces on a map, especially when an animal covered ground faster than a field team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was Nepal\u2019s first GPS-based telemetry study of snow leopards. Satellite communication<\/a> delivered more reliable location data without requiring someone to follow every ridge, so the leap was in what scientists could see rather than a sudden change in the cats\u2019 biology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terrain mattered more than politics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The cats did not move randomly. They favored alpine steppe and scrub, rolling or heavily broken terrain, and slopes between 15 and 50 degrees, while forests, permanent snow and ice, very steep cliffs, and elevations above 5,500 m (18,000 ft.) were generally avoided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That pattern suggests the real boundaries were ecological. A forested gorge or sheer cliff could redirect a snow leopard, but a political line between Nepal, India, and China could not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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