Compensation from the Irbis Association will be received by a family of cattle breeders, whose parking lots are located on the Yuzhno-Chuisky Ridge in the Altai Republic.

The snow leopard attacked the cattle twice in December and January, and the shepherds will be compensated in February.

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Last year, the Snow Leopard Association already compensated the shepherds of the Yuzhno-Chuisky range for the damage caused by the snow leopard attack. A family of cattle breeders was compensated for the loss of 27 sheep and goats, which were captured by a trio of snow leopards: a female taught two kittens how to hunt. This year, according to the assumptions of the Sailugemsky National Park staff, kittens that had already grown up could have carried out the attack. I would like to point out that the snow leopard is forced to descend to humans due to the lack of wild ungulates in nature.

Ali Uzdenov, Chairman of the General Meeting of the Association "Irbis".

The latest attacks have occurred in the last month. The first incident occurred on December 30th. The shepherd, who left the cattle unattended on the pasture, returned to find a dead horse, two goats and a ram. A cattle rancher then noticed a snow leopard sitting by a captured horse and tried to drive it away, shouting and waving his arms.

The predator did not show aggression, calmly moved to the side, watched the man, not trying to hide. The second incident occurred on January 21st at another parking lot nearby. The shepherd heard loud barking of dogs late at night, but did not find anything in the darkness, and in the morning he found a wounded young sarlyk (yak). Scientists at Sailugemsky National Park suggest that the yak was attacked by a young snow leopard, which could not cope with the large animal.

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Both cases of snow leopard attacks on cattle occurred in open pastures. The shepherds immediately informed the staff of the Sailugem National Park about this, we went to the place and confirmed the fact of the attack by the snow leopard, not the wolf. Various evidence was taken into account: snow leopard footprints in the snow, characteristic tracks from snow leopard tusks, distances between tusks, hunting method, damage to the cervical artery, and so on.

Denis Gulyaev, deputy director of Sailyugemsky National Park.

There is no state program for compensation of damage from snow leopard attacks in the region, a similar initiative is being implemented by Sailyugemsky National Park with the support of the Interregional Association "Irbis".

Compensation of losses to shepherds from snow leopard attacks on livestock is used in different countries of the snow leopard range in order to reconcile pastoralists with their existence on the same land with a rare predator and reduce the threat of shooting snow leopards in retaliation fornbsp;attacks and destruction of livestock.