The snow leopard is not just our symbol that appeares on the coat of arms. It is connected with the history of Altai, and it is our duty to preserve this snow leopard
The President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov held a meeting on the creation of the Center for the Conservation of Biological Diversity "Snow Leopard" in the Altai Republic. The project will be a continuation of the Tatarstan Center for the Study of Rare Species of cats.
The meeting on the instructions of the Head of the Altai Republic Oleg Khorokhordin was attended by First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Makhalov, Acting Minister of Natural Resources, Ecology and Tourism Aylan Sumachakov and Head of the Maiminsky district Peter Gromov.
The main speaker of the meeting was the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan Alexander Shadrikov. He presented the concept of the Center. The document was prepared by leading scientific specialists of the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Siberian Federal Research Center for Agrobiotechnologies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"The territory of LLC "Karym" has been proposed as a venue". It is located in the Mayminsky district. The Karym sites are distinguished by high-altitude terrain and natural habitat conditions for the snow leopard and other red Book mammals. Acclimatization will not be required on this territory. The animals will be in comfortable conditions with the necessary food supply. In general, the inspected area is recognized as meeting the requirements and possible for the future location of the center," Alexander Shadrikov said.
Earlier, the President of the Republic inspected the site where they plan to revive the population.
"We went and looked at the territory, we need to make a scientific center here and the premises should be small, because the zone should be wild. We are moving, starting with the leopard, and then we will consider questions on other red book animals: argali, wild cat manul. It is necessary to start with a scientific center and a nursery, a cubicle. It is necessary to determine the stages of these works," Rustam Minnikhanov said.
The ecological and educational objectives of the center in Altai are the organization of year-round tourist routes, family holidays, educational programs, observation of wild animals in the natural environment.
In addition, on the basis of the center, it is planned to breed breeding stock of marals, create a nursery and grow and collect medicinal plants.
The event was supported by the Ministry of Nature of Russia and included in the Draft comprehensive action plan for the creation of centers for the study, restoration and reintroduction of snow leopards in Russia.
Let us recall that it is planned to create "Ak Bars" research center for the study of rare species of cats in Tatarstan. The project was initiated with the direct participation of leading scientific specialists of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Ecology and Evolution Problems with the participation of FRC "KNC RAS" and KFU.
It will allow conducting fundamental and applied scientific research, not only in order to preserve the pure genome of an endangered species, but also to solve further multi-level tasks in medicine, genetics and other fields for the preservation and restoration of their populations.