World Wide Funds for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) opposes the idea that the US Consulate in Islamabad has offered the ministry of environment of a permanent facility to an orphan snow leopard cub that was rescued by the WWF-P in July 2005 in a US Zoo.
According to a WWF-P's spokesman here on Friday, they feel that a permanent facility of this rapidly growing cub should be developed in the Northern Area. The US Consulate may support establishment of such a facility. There was not a single snow leopard in captivity in Pakistan and this cub could help in raising conservation awareness and issues of snow leopard in Pakistan, which was a range country of this species. According to data published in 1996 in IUCN's Cats Status and Survey Report, the US had 175 zoos with 436 snow leopards. These statistics were likely to have changed now. The American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA)'s species survival plan indicates that the zoo population of 'snow leopard' in the US started with 38 wild caught leopard that were brought into capacity in 1960s.
WWF-P rescued this orphan cub from Naltar Valley, Northern Areas. The unfortunate incident happened when a local shot the mother snow leopard. Loss of adult leopard and a cub from the dwindling wild population of snow leopards was a huge loss. It feels that snow leopard should be protected in the wild and any person involved in killing a protected species should be prosecuted.
Snow leopard was an endangered species, protected under provincial legislation and also through international conventions such as Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), prohibiting the trade of snow leopard or its body parts.
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