Status assessment of the Endangered snow leopard Panthera uncia and other large mammals in the Kyrgyz Alay, using community knowledge corrected for imperfect detection J ULIA T AUBMANN ,K OUSTUBH S HARMA ,K UBANYCHBEK Z HUMABAI U ULU J AMES E. H INES and C HARUDUTT M ISHRA

摘要: The Endangered snowleopard Panthera uncia oc- curs in the Central Asian Mountains, which cover c.  mil- lion km . Little is known about its status Kyrgyz Alay a relatively narrow stretch of habitat connecting southern and northern global ranges species. In  we gathered information on current past (, last year Soviet Union) distributions snow leo- pards five sympatric large mammals across , Alay. We interviewed  key informants from local communities. Across  -km grid cells ob- tained ,  records species occurrence (site use)  , respectively. data were analysed using multi-season site occupancy framework to incorp- orate uncertainty detection interviewees time periods. Highprobabilityofuse bysnowleopards was recorded % Between two sampling periods % sites showed high probability extinction leopard. also brown bear Ursus arctos (% sites) Marco Polo sheep Ovis ammon polii (% sites), mainly regions used intensively by people. Data indicated colonization lynx Lynx % sites. Although wildlife has declined areas central eastern Alay, north-west, fringes appear retain conservation value.