The Department of International Cooperation of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will discuss with its Mongolian counterparts the possibility of transferring snow leopards to Russia as part of Russian-Mongolian bilateral cooperation, the ministry’s press service reported. Experts are considering the Sayano-Shushensky Biosphere Reserve (Krasnoyarsk Territory) as a possible release site for the animals.

The issue was discussed at a meeting of the expert section on snow leopard conservation as part of a series of expert meetings of the working group on the protection and recovery of certain rare and endangered wildlife species in Russia. The event was chaired by Deputy Head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor) Amirkhan Amirkhanov.

The experts also reviewed possible changes to the Strategy for Snow Leopard Conservation in the Russian Federation. The work on updating the document, adopted in 2015, is carried out under the Biodiversity Conservation and Ecotourism Development federal project of the Environment national project.