The snow leopard had been caught in the act. Cornered inside the loosely-secured livestock corral, it had already killed several sheep and goats. So Totisho Davlatnazarov Mubarakadamovich, a herder in the remote Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan, did what he felt he had to. He picked up the nearest available weapon, a shovel, and killed the wild cat. He hoped to recoup the devastating loss to his livelihood by selling its skin and bones. Illegally-procured leopard skins are sold as ostentatious wall hangings, and as body parts for traditional Asian medicines. This trade could have provided a lucrative opportunity had Mubarakadamovich sold his ill-gotten wares.
But news travels quickly in small communities. Local authorities got word of his actions and prepared to enact a hefty punishment. Eking out $40 a month as both teacher and herder, he now faced a crippling fine of $32,000.
The herder's plight reached the ears of Tanya Rosen, Director of Panthera's Snow Leopard Program in Tajikistan. She recognised his dilemma: retaliatory killing of snow leopards is widespread. "We were determined to turn this terrible accident into something positive," says Rosen.
She convinced Mubarakadamovich to turn the leopard carcass over to Tajikistan's Committee of Environmental Protection and Tajik Academy of Sciences, and to promise to never kill another predator, in exchange for an agreement to waive the fine.
Relieved of his financial burden, Mubarakadamovich was profoundly grateful. On his own initiative, he began assembling others in the village to establish a network of informants, to prevent future snow leopard kills. It was the beginning of what would later become a conflict-mitigation project funded by the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative.
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