Implications of landscape genetics and connectivity of snow leopard in the Nepalese Himalayas for its conservation.

ABSTRACT: The snow leopard is one of the most endangered large mammals. Its population, already low, is declining, most likely due to the consequences of human activity, including a reduction in the size and number of suitable habitats. With climate change, habitat loss may escalate, because of an upward shift in the tree line and concomitant loss of the alpine zone, where the snow leopard lives. Migration between suitable areas, therefore, is important because a decline in abundance in these areas may result in inbreeding, fragmentation of populations, reduction in genetic variation due to habitat fragmentation, loss of connectivity, bottlenecks or genetic drift. Here we use our data collected in Nepal to determine the areas suitable for snow leopards, by using habitat suitability maps, and describ

SUBMITTER: Shrestha B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7669836 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature