A multiscale assessment of snow leopard distribution, habitat-use and landscape connectivity in a new national park in China

The newly established Qilian Mountain National Park (QMNP), with and area of 50,200 km2, was one of the first ten pilot areas of the revised national park system in China. The snow leopard is an important flagship species of the QMNP, although only sporadic field surveys have been conducted since 2011 in the Qilian Mountain region. The lack of data and information has impeded the improvement of conservation and management planning and practice of the national parks. The target of this research was to use data collected from multiple surveys with spatial and temporal variance, with the employment of recent and powerful data analysis algorithms, to explore snow leopard ecology at micro and macro levels in QMNP and provide important contributions for the conservation and management planning of QMNP and surrounding areas. Firstly, snow leopard density was estimated in Yanchiwan National Nature Reserve (YNNR, an important component nature reserve of QMNP) using Spatially Explicit Capture-Recapture Models (SECR), across a 400 km2 area with 62 camera traps systematically set up. In total 14 snow leopard individuals were photo captured during the 4,760 camera trapping nights. The overall abundance of snow leopards was estimated to be 26.3 individuals (SE = 5.7, 95% CI 19.2-43.2) over the entire buffered survey area of 1,881.6 km2. The estimated average snow leopard density for the study was therefore 1.40 (SE=0.30, 95% CI 1.02-2.30) individuals per 100 km2. Covariates of wild and domestic prey (capture events of blue sheep and domestic livestock), and geography (terrain roughness index) were found had big impact on the model performance. In YNNR, 249 snow leopard presence locations were acquired from camera traps and genetically-verified fecal samples. Analysis was then conducted on snow leopard distribution, activity and linkage across the extent of YNNR, with an area of 13,600 km2. A key mountain system (Shulenanshan) in the east of YNNR was identified as the most important area in terms of habitat quality, activity and linkage of snow leopard populations. Based on these analyses, two further areas were identified with high importance for population connectivity, but which were also highly vulnerable from fence and road infrastructure. Analysis on snow leopard distribution, activity and linkage was then extended to the entire QMNP and areas around, based on a wider dataset of 393 snow leopard presence points. Results indicated 16 high-quality patches and 27 medium-quality patches in QMNP and surrounding areas. The largest high-quality patch located in the mid-east of QMNP, which was consistent with the results from connectivity surface and linkage network analysis about the most important key area. Second largest high-quality patch located at south out of the QMNP, which may play the role of bridge or step stones for the snow leopard population communication between the national park and the main part of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Result of least cost path analysis showed that most of the high-quality patch paths went through medium-quality patches, indicating the potential step stone function of the medium-quality patches for snow leopard individuals’ dispersal. Serving as the first case of snow leopard ecological study in national park level landscape in China, this thesis explored population density, distribution, activity and linkage of snow leopard population in QMNP from micro to macro level scale. The thesis demonstrated how the data with spatial and temporal difference can be used in flagship species with big range and scarce information. This study increased our understanding of snow leopard density in high quality habitat, improved the knowledge of the important impact factors of snow leopard distribution at nature reserve and national park level, and described the scenarios of snow leopard activity and linkage with multiple supposed biologically meaningful thresholds of movement and dispersal abilities. This study increased the knowledge of snow leopard ecology, and the results and suggestions provided in the thesis would be an important reference to the managers when making the conservation and management plan in QMNP and surrounding areas