IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, | |
| National Snow Leopard Ecosystem Priority Protection (NSLEP) for Afghanistan 2014-2020 | |
| Full Book | |
The snow leopard (_Panthera uncia_) is sparsely distributed across an area that exceeds 1.2 million square km (Jackson, et al., 2005) and extends across twelve countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan (Hussain, 2003). Afghanistan encompasses the far western range extent of the snow leopard's distribution. Included within Afghanistan's range is the Wakhan Corridor, the narrow panhandle of land in Badakhshan province (in the far northeast of the country) that connects Afghanistan with China (Figure 1). Wakhan is renowned for its wildlife, being home of Afghanistan's only populations of Marco Polo sheep (_Ovis ammon polii_) and various other threatened species, including snow leopards. Wakhan is also the "corner" of Asia's great mountains, and connects snow leopard ranges in the east such as the Pamirs, Karakorams, and Himalayas with the Altais, Kunluns, Tien Shans and other ranges to the north. At the international snow leopard conservation conference in 2008, Wakhan was identified by experts as a global priority Snow Leopard Conservation Unit. |
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