新疆托木尔峰国家级自然保护区雪豹的种群密度

Population density of snow leopards(Panthera uncia) in Tomur National Nature Reserve of Xinjiang,China

雪豹（Panthera uncia）是一种仅分布于中亚高山地区的珍稀濒危大型猫科动物,被IUCN红皮书列为濒危物种,并被收录入CITES公约附录I,在中国雪豹被列为国家一级重点保护动物（杨奇森和冯祚建,1998）。

Tomur National Nature Reserve（TNNR） is located in northwestern Xinjiang near the border between China and Kyrgyzstan,and is one of the largest nature reserves associated with snow leopards（Panthera uncial） in China.We surveyed snow leopards from October 2004 to December 2005 to investigate their population density and number in TNNR.Using a sign survey and a prey availability survey,we estimated the snow leopard population density and compared the results with camera trap survey results in TNNR,and tried to find a less laborintensive and relatively accurate method to estimate snow leopard population density.By sign surveys,we recorded the snow leopard sign density about 8.63/km.With this sign density,we estimated the snow leopard population density in TNNR was 2-5/100km2 with the total number of 47.52-118.8 using Jackson＇s method,and 1.99-3.47/100km2 for population density and 47.28-82.45 for total number using Formozov＇s method.We estimated the population density of the main snow leopard prey species,ibex,in the TNNR was 270/100km2.Using McCarthy＇s methods,we estimated the snow leopard population density according to ibex density was 1.59-3.23/100km2 and thus the total number 37.78-76.46.Compared with the camera trap results which showed that the snow leopard population density was 2.0-3.2/100km2,we found Formozov＇s sign survey and prey availability survey were relatively accurate for estimating snow leopard population density.In the absence of enough labor and effort,these methods are suggested for investigating snow leopard population density.