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Three intrepid explorers are heading out to Ladakh, situated deep within the Himalayas. The staff from the WHF (Wildlife Heritage Foundation – home of the big cat sanctuary) are heading out to Northern India to walk from Ladakh to Leh in search of the elusive ghost of the mountains.
Beccy Porter – Head Keeper, Andy Porter - Photographer/site keeper and Michael Howard who works for PARAMO clothing and volunteers at the sanctuary based in Smarden, Kent. The team have booked the trek through Steppes Travel. The trip is not cheap but the team have already personally funded this. The small team will be led by a member of the snow leopard conservancy team and hope to see snow leopards in their natural habitat, wolves, birds of prey, Pallas cats, blue sheep and the mountains. The altitude will be a challenge (6,500mts) and there are several days of acclimatization before the main trek starts. The main challenge especially for Andy is that in 2006 after a life changing accident on a push bike where he received a head injury, spinal injuries and has now had a big toe fusion in 2010 making it impossible to bend this makes climbing and strenuous walking a major challenge.
The aim of the trek is to raise awareness about the plight of the snow leopard, create a direct contact between WHF and the Snow leopard conservancy and raise funds to split equally between them to help the following:
1. Refurnish Ranschan and Mizi’s (pictured above) enclosure to make it a more natural area for breeding. The sanctuary is a breeding centre of excellence, breeding some of the world’s rarest cats, including Amur leopard, North Chinese leopard, Cheetah, Amur tiger, Sumatran tiger, Serval, Pallas cats and snow leopards. Also on site are the non-breeders such as hybrid Bengal tiger, Puma, Hybrid Amur tiger, European lynx and three African lions. You can find out more about Wildlife Heritage Foundation by visiting www.whf.org.uk and see the range of experiences carried out on site to raise money to support the cats:- photographic days, big cat encounters ranger days and adoptions of big cats.
2. Provide funding for the work that the snow leopard conservancy carry out in the Himalayas working with the communities educating local farmers and herders about the snow leopard and how to work alongside it. Along with other research actually with the cats. The idea is to present a cheque to the snow leopard conservancy while out in Ladakh.
The team have already been sponsored by PARAMO clothing, providing both under layers and outer layers. Temperatures are expected to drop to around -30 at night so specialist equipment is required to keep the team warm but it is a temperature snow leopards are quite used to.
The numbers of snow leopard left in ‘the wild’ are not known, they are listed as Endangered on the (IUCN) red list and it is believed that numbers are still dramatically falling due to poaching, Asian medicine trade, conflict between the herders and the cats, some of the conflicts are not justified and the leopard gets hunted due to incorrect information. There are currently between 600-700 snow leopards in captivity within zoos around the world.
So please dig deep and donate now and support these two worthy charities.
Thank you Beccy, Andy and Michael
