On International Earth Day marked on 20 March, the Escaping World Day of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, dedicated to biodiversity, was held as part of the 8^th Russia’s Primeval Nature festival in Moscow.

Reports on the preservation of snow leopards were delivered by Viktor Lukarevsky, a leading expert at the Ministry’s Centre for Nature Conservation, Director of the Sayano-Shushensky National Biosphere Reserve Gennady Kiselyov and Director of Sailugemsky National Park Denis Malikov.

Gennady Kiselyov spoke about the Sayano-Shushensky Reserve, which is the northernmost area of the snow leopard’s habitat. He focused on the efforts being made to preserve and restore the population of snow leopards in the reserve. The biggest threat for the survival of snow leopards is the use of hunting loops for catching musk deer. By 2018, despite all the measures being taken, Russia’s largest and most well studied group of snow leopards living in the Sayano-Shushensky Reserve was almost extinct. Only one male, Ikhtiandr, was regularly sighted in the reserve and its specially protected area.

The world’s first experiment to relocate snow leopards was launched in 2018. As part of The Snow Leopard – A Living Symbol of the Western Sayan Mountains project, which was underway until 2019 with the support of the Russian Geographical Society, one male and one female snow leopard were released in the Sayano-Shushensky Reserve.

The first images recorded by trap cameras in October 2020 showed the female with two cubs, which proved that the experiment had achieved its goal.