Ministry of Ecology's Forestry and Wildlife Committee posted a video of a female snow leopard and her cub at “Kolsai Lakes” National Park of Almaty Region on their official Instagram account. The footage was captured by a camera trap installed inside the park.
In Kazakhstan, the snow leopard inhabits the mountains of Tien Shan, Zhetysu (Jungar) Alatau, Tarbagatai, Saur, and Altai. The species is included in the Red List of Kazakhstan and all 12 countries of habitat as well as the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources with the status "threatened".
Snow leopards face threats of poaching, a decrease in natural prey, and the construction of roads, entertainment centers, ski resorts and other infrastructure which results in the degradation and fragmentation of habitats and increasing isolation of individual groups. The national park “Kolsai Lakes” was established in 2007 and is a popular tourist destination which consists of three Kolsai lakes and a famous mountainous Kaiyndy Lake with trunks of coniferous trees rising above the lake’s surface.
