{"id":20091807,"date":"2022-06-08T12:57:57","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T07:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=91807"},"modified":"2022-06-27T18:10:49","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T12:40:49","slug":"himalayan-wolves-emerge-slopes-of-everest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/himalayan-wolves-emerge-slopes-of-everest\/","title":{"rendered":"Elusive Himalayan wolves emerge on the slopes of Everest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On a fine morning in April 2022, Mount Everest can be seen clearly from the Sagarmatha (Everest) National Park office in Namche, northeastern Nepal, the snow from its peak evaporating to form a thin layer of cloud. Bishnu Rokaya, the park’s assistant conservation officer, has little time for the beauty on display as he flips through the pages of their latest annual report<\/a>. He points to a passage stating that, “from mid-2020 to mid-2021, over three hundred livestock [animals] were killed by wild animals in the park and its buffer zone areas, for which we have paid the communities a sum of over 9 million rupees [USD 85,000 USD] as compensation for their losses.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Himalayan wolves \u2013 one of the Nepal’s least-studied wild animals \u2013 are playing an outsized role in the problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the report, of the 323 livestock animals killed, 234 \u2013 over 70% \u2013 were killed by Himalayan wolves, known locally as bwasho<\/em>. And this number has been rising year on year, says Rokaya. “We don’t know the exact reason for this increased number of casualties, but it has become a very serious issue for us and the communities in recent years,” he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Himalayan wolf, also called the Tibetan wolf, has a population of several thousand<\/a> in adjoining Tibet, but the number living in Nepal is unknown. \u201cMuch of conservation focus has been on snow leopards in the high mountains due to which wolves have received negligible attention, but both are the top predators in the region,\u201d says Naresh Kusi, country program director at the Himalayan Wolves Project<\/a>, who has been researching wolves for the past few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Factbox: The Himalayan wolf may be a separate species<\/span>
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The scientific status of the Himalayan wolf is unclear, though research has shown it is genetically distinct from other Eurasian wolves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStudies on wolves from Asia are fewer [than on other wolves] and the taxonomy of various Asian wolf populations is not clearly established,\u201d stated a recent scientific review<\/a> on Asian wolves led by Geraldine Werhahn, director at the Himalayan Wolves Project<\/a>. The review concluded that the Himalayan wolf, as well as the Indian wolf, are distinct enough to be considered separate at the subspecies or species level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur research<\/a> suggests that Himalayan wolves are genetically different and adapted themselves to low oxygen levels at high altitude and are eligible to be a subspecies,” says Naresh Kusi of the Himalayan Wolves Project, adding that its status is now under review by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In the meantime, Nepalese law still lists its wolf population it as the grey wolf, as a nationally endangered species.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Did Himalayan wolves follow yaks into Nepal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While the current presence of Himalayan wolves in Nepal’s mountains is beyond doubt, how long a resident population has been present is contentious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWolves were here for ages but they hadn’t colonised [the areas in Nepal] permanently as their big population is in Tibet just across the border, where abundant prey species are present compared to Nepal’s mountains. Those temporary populations were often killed by herders as retaliatory killing which wouldn’t have [come] to the notice of park authorities as the population was small,” says Kusi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Recommended<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/a>\n\n\n\n

Locals also say that while wolves have long been present in the area, until recently there had been no serious conflict except occasional retaliatory killings by herders. \u201cWe had wolves in the Everest region when I was a kid,\u201d says Lhakpa Norbu Sherpa, who served as the first chief conservation officer of the national park in 1983. \u201cThere were wolves even before the park was established in 1976 but complaints of livestock killing increased sharply after 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many locals believe the apparent rise in wolf numbers is linked to an import of yaks from Tibet in 2014. That year, 30 yaks were brought over from Tibet via Nangpa La pass \u2013 northwest of Everest \u2013 to the Syangboche Yak Breeding Centre, to cross-breed and improve the genetic quality of the local yak population. A team of 25 took 16 days to reach the location in Tibet where the Chinese government had delivered the yaks, hiking through thick snow; the return journey with the animals took another seven days. \u201cI just can’t believe how we survived that journey,\u201d says Lalan Yadav, livestock technician at the yak breeding centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Yaks<\/div>
Yaks and porters en route to Tibet, on an expedition to bring yaks from Tibet to the Syangboche Yak Breeding Centre in Nepal in 2014 (Image: Lalan Yadav, Syangboche Yak Breeding Centre) <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A couple of years after the Tibetan yaks\u2019 arrival, locals started to complain about wolves attacking yaks and other livestock. \u201cLocals have said that a [pack] of Tibetan wolves followed those yaks and then started to live here permanently. I, too, believe it is possibly true,\u201d says Lalan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pema Tshering Sherpa is a resident of Khumjung village, a little uphill from the Syangboche breeding centre. He believes that the yaks brought in Himalayan wolves to the region. \u201cLivestock killing has dramatically increased after 2015. That coincides with yaks\u2019 arrival from Tibet, so it must be the reason,\u201d says Sherpa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers don’t deny the possibility of wolf packs following the yaks from Tibet but, Kusi says, \u201cIt needs to be validated with scientific evidence which we don’t have, at least for now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human-wolf conflict increasing, but information sparse<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2013, Nepal introduced its first guidelines to compensate communities for any loss or injury of livestock caused by eight types of wild animal: elephants, rhinos, bears, tigers, leopards, snow leopards, wild boar, and wild buffalo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015 the government decided to add Himalayan wolves, clouded leopards and wild dogs to the list. \u201cWe had started to receive complaints from locals that wolves have been killing their yaks and horses in the region but had no way to compensate,\u201d says Ganesh Pant, an ecologist at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, who was chief conservation officer of the national park in 2015. \u201cSo we recommended an addition of wolf to the list that allowed us to pay NPR 30,000 [USD 240] for any loss of livestock,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n