There are two snow leopard landscapes in Mongolia. The South Gobi landscape, located in the southern part of the country, has 68,000 km2 of habitat located almost entirely in one large, connected mosaic.
The South Gobi landscape consists of a vast mosaic of rugged, elevated 'core' habitat areas interspersed by more homogenous, flat areas that snow leopards move across.
Good Habitat
Fair Habitat
Conection Habitat
Key threats to snow leopards
Conservation strategies that involve people are key, since much of the core snow leopard habitat in this landscape is affected by some level of human impact.
Protected Areas cover about 33% of key snow leopard habitats in the South Gobi Landscape.
Some core and movement areas remain unprotected, particularly in the eastern portion of the landscape between the two protected areas, circled below.
Temperatures are expected to increase by 2.0-3.3 ºC degrees by mid-century, with slight increases in rainfall in June, July and August, the wettest months of the year. Warming is projected to yield a longer growing season and a changing freeze-thaw cycle, resulting in slope instability of permafrost areas no longer above the frost line and potential changes to the productivity of grassland systems.
* Columbia University Center for Climate Systems Research, Earth Institute. 2017. Climate Change in the Snow Leopard Landscapes of Asia's High Mountains
Snow leopards of the South Gobi landscape may be particularly vulnerable to climate change. If current emmisions trends continue, an enormous amount of snow leopard habitat in this landscape could be lost. According to this model, areas depicted in pink would no longer be suitable for snow leopards in the future.
The most resilient area of the landscape, according to this model, is the northwest area of the landscape surrounding Ix Bogd Uul National Conservation Park.
Projected lossSnow Leopard Habitat
Precipitation map illustrates the role that the mountain ranges play in feeding the intermittent streams and groundwater recharge.
There is very high rainfall variability year to year in this very arid area, so this map is only an example of how water flows from the mountains.
Around the mountain ranges, areas will loose up to two months of winter under projected climate change. The mountaintops themselves will not loose any duration in winter; they seem to be too cold to thaw, even under increased temperatures.
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