One way on how we are directly impacting the existence of snow leopards.
Snow leopards inhabit mountain ranges of 12 countries across Central and South Asia. Between 4500 and 10000 of these majestic animals are estimated to live on this planet and a decline is still expected. We don’t know more exact numbers, because these animals are so ellusive. In Asia the snow leopards’ habitat spans over diverse landscapes, where livestock herding is the most dominant form of land use. Consequently, areas inhabited by snow leopards and people often overlap.
Threats
The sole predator of snow leopards? Humans. Hunting, habitat loss, declines in natural prey species and retaliatory killings resulting from human-wildlife conflict are the main reasons this big cat is threatened. As their natural prey becomes harder to find, snow leopards are forced to kill livestock for survival. These snow leopards, dead or alive, are often then sold into the illegal wildlife trade, the largest threat to snow leopards. They also suffer from decreasing prey availability linked to livestock overgrazing.
As listed, snow leopards are threatened by many factors, one of them being cashmere consumption. It’s this factor we will concentrate on in this post.
Cashmere
Cashmere is a sought after material for clothing due to peoples’ thinking it’s high end. Know that with every purchase of an item made of or containing cashmere, the industry that contributes to snow leopards perishing is supported. It goes further – by supporting this industry, you help its extending, taking more space from nature for its pastures to cultivate more cashmere goats. Snow leopards, being at the top of the food chain and thus the most vulnerable, suffer a loss of space and with it a loss of prey. Food decline is the first problem. Second, by not having enough food, the cats have to turn to food that is available – animals in the enclosure. Thus coming into conflict with humans. The cats are hunted and shot. In estimation 220 to 450 snow leopards are killed by people annually, with 55 % of these being retaliatory killings in response to livestock predation by snow leopards.
Poor land management and overgrazing to increase production of the material has resulted in decimation and transformation of grasslands into deserts in Asia, destroying entire ecosystems, increasing local temperatures, causing air and land pollution.
Our actions have consequences
Do you want to be the one who contributes to the perishing of these beauties just because you want a piece of clothing that sounds expensive when you point out the material? Our every action impacts nature negatively. But just by being mindful we can change that, even if only slightly. These seemingly small actions and decisions have good positive consequences.
Next time, when you see anyone wearing or buying a new cashmere piece of clothing and/or you want one for yourself, be mindful about what consequences your actions cause. In fact, do one better – not only do we not support the cashmere industry by not purchasing the item – we can spread awareness. By letting know the people around us that they can make a change for the better – by not buying cashmere items.
Snow leopards – let’s let them live their glorious lives with their graceful beauty for millenia to come – way after the homo sapiens species will cease to exist. Let’s not take them down with us as we have taken so many species already.
Know that everything we do, any actions, decisions we make, affect the whole world, to the very last corner. But as bad as this can be, it can be just as good, when we use this knowledge for good, to make a change for the better.
For more information, visit this link.
Sources:
- https://panthera.org/blog-post/our-snow-leopard-program-takes-leap-kyrgyzstan?utm_source=April_2022_enews&utm_medium=4_2022_enews&utm_campaign=April_2022enews
- https://panthera.org/cat/snow-leopard
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashmere_wool
- https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/snow-leopard
- Sharma R. K., Singh R. Over 100 years of snow leopard research. 2021.
2 thoughts on “Snow leopards and cashmere – how consumption and production of cashmere affects snow leopards (Panthera uncia)”