Head of the Department of Science, Environmental Monitoring and Information of the Katon-Karagai State National Natural Park, Associate Professor of the Institute of Biology and Biotechnology of Altai State University Aliya Gabdullina obtained unique video footage of the snow leopard in the Kazakh part of Altai.
On the territory of the Archatinsky forestry of the Katon-Karagai National Park, in November 2020, the Specially Protected Natural Area staff installed a camera trap, with the help of which they managed to obtain unique video shots of the snow leopard. The camera trap worked from November 20, 2020 to March 25, 2021 and shot more than 250 videos showing Siberian mountain goats, Alpine jackdaws, sable, wolverine and Altai snowcocks, listed in the Red Book of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Several videos in 2020 and 2021 captured the snow leopard from different angles.
We have been working with the camera traps in the national park since 2013, and already in 2014 we received the first photographs of snow leopards for the Kazakh Altai. The results of this work were reported at several scientific and practical conferences, seminars and meetings, including international ones. We have also published several articles on the use of camera traps for researching biodiversity of the Katon-Karagai National Park
Studying the biodiversity of the Greater Altai transboundary region is an extremely important task. It is great that our employees manage to find not only flora or insects, but also such rare “flag” mammals as the snow leopard or the irbis. Based on the materials of these findings, an article is being prepared for the journal Acta Biologica Sibirica, indexed in Scopus,
comments Roman Yakovlev, Professor of the Department of Ecology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology at the Institute of Biology and Biotechnology, Altai State University.
Source: Altai State University
