Snow leopard surprise in eastern Mongolia

Snow leopard ascends a steep rocky slope

The recent discovery of a snow leopard in Mongolia’s Ikh Nart Nature Reserve—more than 250 km (155 miles) from the nearest known population—is one of the easternmost observations of the species and has big implications for understanding the species and improving conservation planning. Although Ikh Nart is in a region assessed to be a low-quality…

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Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome: Transboundary impacts

The recent launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan of a rocket has once again brought to the forefront the dangers posed by this space facility that is operated by Russia’s RosKosmos space program. When a rocket is launched, boosters, rocket fragments, and other waste fall away, landing with a crash back on Earth. Generally, they…

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Kazakhstan: an overview

Kazakhstan ranks as the largest nation in Central Asia and the world’s largest landlocked country. It share borders with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and the Caspian Sea. A land of deserts and plateaus stretching across the rolling tablelands of the Eurasian landmass, approximately 20 percent of Kazakhstan is mountainous, dotted by the Tien Shan,…

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Steppe eagles

Steppe eaglets on a nest

Long-term study sheds light on Steppe eagle migration It’s a rough, but mostly routine, journey for Steppe eagles (Aquila nipalensis) migrating to their winter abodes, according to results of a four-year study.  In May 2022 Russia-based ornithologists announced the results of a conservation project launched in 2018 that centered on the Steppe eagle and focused…

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Wind power and raptors

Eastern imperial eagle (photo by I. Karyakin)

The connection between wind power and raptors is surprisingly complex. Wind power generation stations, or “farms”, offer renewable, low-pollution energy and are an important tool for combating the climate crisis.  However, these wind farms have a number of environmental consequences, including killing an estimated 681,000 birds/year in the United States alone in 2021. Given the…

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Graduate internship in snow leopard research

Enjoy this video created by The Altai Project’s 2016 intern, Audrey Jost. In it, she documents her collaboration with a local snow leopard expert and his team at Altaisky State Nature Reserve. You can read her article about her time in Altai here.

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