Classification of Snow Leopard habitat

in Mt. Everest National Park

Sujhav Pun & Martin Gordon

Background

• Snow leopards disappeared in the 1960's but in the late 1980’s anecdotal reports noted their return.

• Very elusive

• Altitudinal home range 3500-5500m

• Prefer low elevation, close to rivers, away from humans and less snowfall, prefer exposed rocky areas

• Need for identifying ideal habitat

Study Area

• Mt. Everest National Park (Sagarmatha)

• Elevation ranges from2,810m to 8,848m at the summit of Everest

• 443.2 sq miles in area

• WGS 84, UTM 45N

Methods

• Identify cover typeso Unsupervised Classificationo Supervised classification - identify all possible

features based on image interpretationo Supervised classification - identify vegetation

types based on ecological data

• Use ecological data to ID cover types

Continued

• Literature analysis needed to identifyo Ideal leopard habitato Prey species habitat

Raw Data

True color R/G/B = 3/2/1

Custom = R/G/B = 4/3/2

Unsupervised Classification

Supervised classification

Supervised classification - Forest

Types

Conclusion

• Good for researchers and policy makers

• More data needed