PhD scholar Lhendup Tharchen has spent his career tracking big cats and wants to ensure the apex predators can coexist with humans.

by Hannah Dixon Contributing writer

The snow-capped peaks of Himalayan mountains of Bhutan are home to hidden residents – always watching and waiting.

The snow leopard is an elusive figure. Just because you haven’t spotted the big cat, it doesn’t mean it hasn’t seen you.

And Lhendup Tharchen has followed and tracked numerous snow leopards. But he has had bad luck with the animal. Despite being involved in the conservation of big cats for more than a decade, Tharchen has not been able to sight one in the wild.

His team was the first to collar a snow leopard with a satellite tracking device in 2016 – a milestone he missed because he had to attend some urgent work back in office during that particular period.

But then the signal became weaker. The opportunity was lost.

“My friends were not really happy with me because I took the decision of not firing or pressing the button,” Tharchen recalls. “The entire night the two of them were very moody; they said it’s too tiring and you didn’t listen.”

The next day Tharchen was determined to make it up to them. He ventured off alone to try to pick up snow leopard’s signal again.

While climbing peaks and troughs, he found it – they were back on track. The snow leopard’s collar suggested it was just on the other side of the shallow gully where they stood.

“Later, when I got home, I could see we were sort of walking parallel, but because the snow leopard was so camouflaged, I couldn’t see her,” Tharchen says.

“All of us were worried that if we miss today, tomorrow we would have to cross this high mountain, so we discussed and agreed to press the button.

“I just turned towards where the signal was coming from and pressed. I got my dropped collar, it was still warm even – and I still couldn’t see the snow leopard.

“Perhaps my colleagues are just luckier than me.”

Living among apex predators

Tharchen says his closest encounter with a snow leopards was an important lesson. He has learnt to accept the sensation of being seen and known without seeing and knowing.

For many of these big cats, there is still uncertainty about exact population numbers. But estimates from remote camera-based surveys suggest that between 2015 and 2022 numbers were up 27 percent for tigers and almost 40 per cent for snow leopards in Bhutan.

“In all the range countries we have been struggling for quite a long while with the wild population to beat this decline. But some encouragement we have seen is we have started to bring back the downward curve,” Tharchen says.

“This is a beginning. We need to wait and see how it goes, and if it keeps increasing.”

Researching coexistence

For Tharchen, joining the Australian National University (ANU) as a PhD scholar with the Fenner School of Environment and Society is the next step in his conservation work.

“I’m doing research on these big cats and through this I expect to know where they are, how they’re doing, how they are interacting, how different regions of Bhutan are contributing – all these details,” he says.

He hopes his work will fill data gaps and enable a better understanding of how to balance conservation needs with policies that allow development and continued community livelihood.

“We have this ‘human-leopard conflict’ where these big cats would prey upon domestic animals causing issues and problems for community livelihood, even killing humans at times.”

In Bhutan, snow leopards share their habitats with remote communities of farmers and yak herders.

The largely Buddhist population reveres big cats – tigers, in particular, have symbolic significance in Buddhist culture.  Buddhist teachings also have principles against taking the life of any living being.

Still, coexistence can be challenging for humans and big cats.

“If you happen to visit Bhutan and its Buddhist temples, you will get to see a lot of murals where we can see tigers, snow lions and all these snow leopards. They are highly, highly respected,” Tharchen says.

“But at the same time, we have this ‘human-leopard conflict’ where these big cats would prey upon domestic animals causing issues and problems for community livelihood, even killing humans at times.

“It’s very easy to say tigers are important and leopards are important until the point where you see your own cattle, your own horse or mule being attacked or killed by them.

“And in those parts of Bhutan, that very cattle being killed by a tiger, or yak killed by a snow leopard could be the only source of livelihood for the family.”

The government has previously created mitigation measures including a compensation fund and an insurance scheme to prevent impacted communities seeking retribution against big cats. But Tharchen worries these initiatives may not be sustainable long-term.

“No matter to what extent the technology drives conservation, what policies are there, if you are not able to address those things on the ground it will be a challenge that continues,” Tharchen says.

“If we can take actions that ring true where we look into all these social issues, I think we could have a better, lasting conservation.”