Big Cat Conservation: A Global Alliance

From Kyrgyzstan to Chauvet Cave—A Journey Leading to the Story of Us All

Snow Leopard Conservation

Global Big Cat Alliance

May 2018 Project Update

Dear Donor,

Thank you for all that you do to help us bring Western and Indigenous knowledge systems together for the conservation of these beloved big cats, important not only in their own right, but because our very survival depends on theirs! We are immensely grateful to you, to the ancestors, and to the spirit of the big cats.

From a chance encounter with the pelt of a Snow Leopard in a tourist yurt in Kyrgyzstan to Chauvet Cave of Southern France a decade later… we retrace the steps of our ancestors through a video WISN produced this past quarter as part of our efforts to raise awareness of and bring critical resources to the Snow Leopard conservation efforts of our partners.

In 2008, Dr. Apela Colorado, Oneida and Gaul Elder and founder of the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network (WISN), had a profound chance encounter in a yurt in Kyrgyzstan. Entering this yurt, she saw the skin of an animal she did not recognize hanging on the wall. She immediately dropped to her knees and wept in front of what she later learned was the pelt of a sacred Snow Leopard.

Over the next decade, her research brought her in contact with numerous Kyrgyz Elders who shared some of the oral wisdom, which holds that the Snow Leopard clan people (the original European tribes) migrated West with Snow Leopards from Central Asia tens of thousands of years ago. It is the reason, they believe, that there are so few snow leopards remaining in Kyrgyzstan today.

While it is known in Western science that many European tribes descend from these Central Asian tribes, there was nothing in Western science to corroborate the movement of Snow Leopards as told by the Kyrgyz Elders. Until now.

We reported last year about a separate research trip to the Caves of Southern France during which a WISN team discovered that there was a painting of a Snow Leopard and that the remains of a (approximately) 35,000 year-old Snow Leopard were discovered in this cave, a cave which had been sealed off for at least 26,000 years. While remarkable in and of itself, the link to Kyrgz oral tradition was one that few people would be able to make. Dr. Colorado was able to make this connection. And in Fall 2017, we brought a Kyrgyz Elder to these caves to make an offering and prayer for the survival of his sacred totem animal (see Fall 2017 report), the endangered Snow Leopard. 

During this journey, we met with Jean Clottes, Ph.D., one of the foremost French experts on the Caves of Southern France. At the conclusion of this meeting, Zhaparkul Ata put his hand on Dr. Clottes heart saying,

 "We are brothers. You are science. I am shaman, In the future, we will work together." 

May it be so. 

We share the just released video with you, dear donors, with much heartfelt gratitude for all you have done to support our ongoing conservation efforts.

Links:

• From Kyrgyzstan to Chauvet--WISN video to raise awareness

Jaguar of Light

Global Big Cat Alliance

January 2018 Project Update

Dear Donor,

Thank you for all that you do to help us bring Western and Indigenous knowledge systems together for the conservation of these beloved big cats. We are immensely grateful to you, to the ancestors, and to the spirit of the big cats.

Tiger Conservation

We have a number of updates to share with you this quarter, including our work with one of our partners, China Tiger Revival (CTR), whose Director was integrally involved in the global tiger conservation work of UNDP and who authored a seminal book on South China Tigers. We hosted a visit of the Director last month, during which time we strategized on tiger conservation and the role of culture. By way of background, CTR was instrumental in launching the first program of its kind, a program through which tigers previously held in captivity were brought to South Africa, and released into the wild, essentially “re-wilding” them so that they could learn to function like tigers in the wild. The goal is ultimately to bring these tigers back to China where they can roam free on their ancestral lands. During our time together, we learned that CTR was able to negotiate with the organizers of the Wild Conference to host the next annual global conference China for the first time ever. Our aim now is to identify Indigenous Cultural Practitioners in China who still perform the ancient tiger dances, in order to bring a cultural component to this conference. It’s a big step to bridge the tiger conservation and the indigenous world.

Jaguar Conservation

Additionally, one of our partners, ICP and artist Ernesto Olmos was able through the support of WISN and your generous contributions to travel to the Oaxaca Xaguar Xoo (Jaguar Zoo) to set up an exhibit and altar dedicated to the white Jaguar, also known as the Jaguar of Light an icon representation of the species’ sacredness. The zoo has a number of jaguars in residence, which they hope to rehabilitate and release back into the wild. The environment is not currently hospitable for jaguar conservation.

In the month ahead, we will introduce an ICP from a pristine culture and ecosystem (Yawanawa from Brazil) to both conservationist and and ICP from Mexico to mirror how things can look when culture and ecosystems remain intact. It’s an aspirational model and our hope is that through these connections, a corridor of protection can be established for jaguar conservation that extends from the Amazon in Brazil through Central and North America.

We will continue to raise funds for this effort as well as our work with the other big cats and will have more to report on our ongoing work in our next report this Spring. As always, we are immensely grateful to you, our donors, for all you have done to make this possible.