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Classification of Snow Leopard habitat in Mt. Everest National Park. Sujhav Pun & Martin Gordon. Background. Snow leopards disappeared in the 1960's but in the late 1980’s anecdotal reports noted their return. Very elusive Altitudinal home range 3500-5500m
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Classification of Snow Leopard habitat in Mt. Everest National Park Sujhav Pun & Martin Gordon
Background • Snow leopards disappeared in the 1960's but in the late 1980’s anecdotal reports noted their return. • Very elusive • Altitudinal home range 3500-5500m • Prefer low elevation, close to rivers, away from humans and less snowfall, prefer exposed rocky areas • Need for identifying ideal habitat
Study Area • Mt. Everest National Park (Sagarmatha) • Elevation ranges from 2,810m to 8,848m at the summit of Everest • 443.2 sq miles in area • WGS 84, UTM 45N
Methods • Identify cover types • Unsupervised Classification • Supervised classification - identify all possible features based on image interpretation • Supervised classification - identify vegetation types based on ecological data • Use ecological data to ID cover types
Continued • Literature analysis needed to identify • Ideal leopard habitat • Prey species habitat
Conclusion • Good for researchers and policy makers • More data needed