Syracuse.com - Full house at SUNY ESF prof's talk on endangered snow leopards

[HuntingNY-News]

Gibbs' research on snow leopards has taken him to the Altai Sayan region of southern Russia 10 times.

A snow leopard caught on a trail camera photo. James P. GIbbs  

Syracuse, N.Y.—"There are still seats on the floor in the front here," said SUNY ESF Department Chair Donald Leopold, who acted as master of ceremonies for Wednesday's lecture on endangered snow leopards, given by ESF professor Dr. James Gibbs.

All seats in ESF's new Gateway Center were filled 20 minutes before the lecture, and students were asked to give up their seats to outside visitors and to sit in the aisles and in front of the platform. At the start of the lecture, titled "On the Brink: Saving Russia's Last Snow Leopards", there were over 200 people waiting to hear Dr. Gibbs speak.

Dr. Gibbs is a professor of vertebrae conservation biology as well as the director of the Roosevelt Wild Life Station, a historical research center within ESF. His lecture kicked off ESF's new Dale L. Travis Public Lecture Series, which is free and open anyone interested in ESF's research and conservation efforts.

Gibbs' research on snow leopards has taken him to the Altai Sayan region of southern Russia 10 times. The lecture focused on his findings on these trips, and what the future holds for endangered snow leopards.

"There's something special about snow leopards," said Gibbs, who has worked with many types of endangered species. "What keeps me coming back is that we can actually make a big difference in this place where the people revere this land and the animals who live there."

The Altai Sayan is a mountanous region between Russia and Mongolia, but many nomadic peoples still call it home.

James P. GIbbs

 

The Altai Sayan is a mountanous region between Russia and Mongolia, but many nomadic peoples still call it home, Gibbs said. Although they have religious connections to their environment, most locals struggle with poverty, and snow leopard pelts can be sold for over $200. Snow leopard populations were destroyed between 1970-1990 by poaching snares, and Gibbs and his team spend a lot of time cleaning up remaining snares that have been set throughout the region.

At the moment, there are seven to nine leopards in Gibbs' research area in the Altai Sayan, but he said $40,000 per year over the next five years could restore a healthy population—about 30 to 40 animals—to the region.

Caitlin Gordnier, a new zookeeper at the Rosamond-Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, said it's important that these topics are brought to students' attention through lectures like this one. "You have to continue to learn about the animals you work with," Gordnier said. "If this is the field they want to go into, it's always important to learn from the people who have the experience and are out there researching."

Sponsor Dale Travis, who was able to attend Gibbs' first lecture in this series, was "proud and pleased" to see such a crowd at ESF. "The public deserves to know what this school and the people at this school are doing," Travis said.

Gibbs said he hopes that students at the lecture learned that it's possible for them to have a huge impact in their field. "I look at the students and I really see myself there," Gibbs said. "Everyone can make a difference if they commit to it."

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog