Working as a volunteer at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo, Freeman became fascinated with the snow leopards there and learned about their endangered plight. Microsoft has devoted 50 million dollars in grants to fund wildlife conservation. from footage in the BBC’s Planet Earth and Natural World documentaries, and Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom series on Animal Planet. The trust supports the Snow Leopard Network (SLN), a collaborative network of organisations and government agencies from all over the globe working on snow leopard conservation. The trust performs scientific research projects, manages community-level conservation programs, and fosters global collaboration amongst snow leopard experts and other snow leopard support groups. Snow Leopard Trust receives 91.24 out of 100 for their Charity Navigator rating. The following are some of the trust’s most current and impactful studies. Snow Leopard Trust, Seattle, WA. The snow leopard is an endangered large cat inhabiting the high mountains of Central and South Asia. The Snow Leopard Trust works with zoos and other conservation organisations worldwide, facilitating international conservation co-operation. The families have all agreed to stop hunting snow leopards and prey species while also helping with anti-poaching activities. Our members save money by using these snowleopard.org discount codes at the checkout. We'll send it to you upon successful completion of your donation. For the health of our community, the Snow Leopard Trust office is closed and staff are operating remotely. The organization has received 4 and 3 stars in the past. Snow Leopard Trust 4649 Sunnyside Avenue North Suite 325 Seattle, WA 98103 USA Email: shop@snowleopard.org Phone: (206) 632-2421 Fax: (206) 632-3967 Contact. The present total population of snow leopards in the wild is estimated at between 3,920 and 6,390. Snow Leopard Trust is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization and your donation is tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. "Global Snow Leopard and Eco-System Protection Program", http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=7393, https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/worldnews/301111winner.html, http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/asia_pacific/where/pakistan/index.cfm?uNewsID=87820, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6188482.stm, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/developmental-issues/HP-to-launch-snow-leopard-research-conservation-facility-in-Spiti/articleshow/29174501.cms, http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/10/23/countries-converge-in-kyrgyz-republic-for-new-global-initiative-to-conserve-the-snow-leopard-and-high-mountain-ecosystems, TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network website, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Snow_Leopard_Trust&oldid=991616186, Non-profit organizations based in Seattle, Environmental organizations based in Washington (state), Pages using infobox organization with unknown parameters, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from October 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, the protection of snow leopards and their habitat, involving local communities in this effort, an improved quality of life for the members of the community, the program developed must have a path to becoming self-sufficient so long term it is not dependent on donor dollars. In March 2008, the Snow Leopard Trust, WCS, the Snow Leopard Network, and Panthera Foundation organized an international conference in Beijing, China to bring together representative from all snow leopard range countries for the first time. Snow Leopards are a highly threatened species, native to the steppes and mountainous terrain of Asia. Snow Leopard Trust has been rated by Charity Navigator for 14 years and receives 4 out of 4 stars. More than 50 zoos worldwide participate in the Snow Leopard Trust’s Natural Partnerships Program. Photos of Wild Snow Leopards. [12], Conservationists and educators working on the ground in snow leopard countries often have limited resources and the grants program will support them in any projects that meet the needs identified in the Snow Leopard Survival Strategy (SLSS). Bayad is known to many[according to whom?] In 2008, the trust launched a long-term (10+ year) research project to take place in Mongolia’s South Gobi Province. Misra, Julie "Saving the snow leopard." Angel Eyes is an IOT device that monitors a baby’s sleeping position and environment. Snow Leopard Trust is a 4-Star Nonprofit on Charity Navigator and a Top-Rated Nonprofit on GreatNonprofits.org. Please visit CharityNavigator.org and GreatNonprofits.org for … The Snow Leopard Trust aims to better understand the endangered snow leopard, and to protect the cat in partnership with the communities that share its habitat. Microsoft AI is a robust framework for developing AI solutions in conversational AI, machine learning, data sciences, robotics, IoT, and more. Snow Leopard Trust, Seattle, WA. The device analyzes drinking water with real-time detection and contamination mapping. The Snow Leopard Trust’s community-run livestock insurance program helps herder communities build a sustainable compensation mechanism to offset the cost of livestock kills by snow leopards. Make a one-time gift for critical support right now. Students in grades K-8 will fall in love with these beautiful cats and love learning about their remarkable adaptations, importance to the food web, and interactions with humans sharing their habitat. Only about 5 percent of the pictures actually contain a leopard, which can be hard to spot due to their camouflage. The Snow Leopard Trust is recognized as a 4-star charity by Charity Navigator,[3] and is a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, European Association of Zoos and Aquariums, World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, International Species Information System, and Co-Op America. When working in snow leopard range countries, the Snow Leopard Trust works with the following conservation organizations/NGOs: Snow Leopard Foundation (Pakistan), Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation (Mongolia), Nature Conservation Foundation (India), Snow Leopard Foundation (Kyrgyzstan) and Shan Shui Conservation Center (China). 882,425 likes. Contact. PoseTracker uses deep learning to track the position and orientation of objects. First, we use the Azure Cognitive Services on Spark to embed large scale Bing Image Searches directly into Apache Spark. These conservation programs must meet four important goals: Snow Leopard Enterprises (SLE) is one of the trust’s major community programs. Visit www.snowleopard.org to learn more! Using LIME, we can refine our classifier into a model that can detect the actual patterns of the leopard, without requiring human-annotated bounding boxes. Snow leopards no longer have the luxury of time and space, and neither do we. Visit www.snowleopard.org to learn more! The trust has established a base camp in the Tost Mountains, approximately 250 km west of the provincial capital of Dalanzadgad, and in the first wave of researchers were scientists from Argentina, Mongolia, the United States and Sweden. [9], In 2006, in co-operation with geneticists Dr. Lisette Waits of the Laboratory for Ecological and Conservation Genetics at the University of Idaho and Dr. Warren Johnson of the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, the Snow Leopard Trust identified several spots on the cats' DNA (microsatellite loci) that have enough variation to tell individual cats apart. Microsoft Machine Learning for Apache Spark (MMLSpark) and the Azure Cognitive Services are used to automate image classification, allowing researchers to find well-camouflaged snow leopards within image sets more quickly, saving over 300 hours per camera survey. The Tost Nature Reserve is Mongolia’s only protected area dedicated to snow leopard conservation.Created in 2016, following years of effort by the Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation (SLCF) and Tost herder communities, it is now a federally-protected area, off-limits to mining and hunting, while still permitting traditional herder practices. In our workflow, we leverage ResNet50, a 50-layer deep convolutional network with residual connections that has been trained on the ImageNet classification challenge. Simply classifying images of leopards is not enough to determine the number of leopards in the ecosystem. Prior to the launch of this long-term study, trust scientists captured a female snow leopard (named Bayad) in Chitral Gol National Park in northern Pakistan on 17 November 2006, fitting her with a GPS satellite collar in order to accurately collect detailed knowledge regarding the species’ movements and home range size. With your help, we protect the endangered snow leopard. View album Videos of Wild Snow Leopards. Snow leopards are apex predators in Central Asia, known as “ghosts of the mountains” due to their elusive nature. We will do our very best to keep on track. In the seven other countries within the snow leopard range, the trust supports and collaborates with researchers and conservation organizations. Although there have been several valuable studies of the species to date, most were short-term, or at most four or five years in duration.[6]. The Snow Leopard Trust used Microsoft AI to build a scalable image recognition program that is roughly 95% accurate in identifying snow leopards in camera trap photos. "Helen E. Freeman, protector of snow leopards, is dead at 75", New York Times, 2007-10-01. Over 1 million images have been gathered, and camera traps add 500,000 images each year. Snow Leopard Trust values and celebrates diversity in the workplace and is committed to advancing equity through our work. With your help, we protect the endangered snow leopard. Despite their pivotal importance as this biome’s apex predator, we know very little about their numbers and behavior. From Tech Minutes videos to Technology Deep Dives, learn about the engineering that powers the future of AI. The trust developed the Snow Leopard Information Management System (SLIMS) which now facilitates knowledge sharing of snow leopard research results around the world. Visit www.snowleopard.org to learn more! Each country will designate a national snow leopard focal point from a relevant institution to coordinate with the Snow Leopard Network and other focal points for the exchange of information at the national and international level. [11] The SLN produced the Snow Leopard Survival Strategy (SLSS) a report which presents a co-ordinated strategy for ensuring the endangered cat’s survival. The present total population of snow leopards in the wild is estimated at between 3,920 and 6,390. Today's top Snow Leopard Trust offer is 20% Off Your Order ; Our best Snow Leopard Trust coupon code will … We use MMLSpark, the Azure Cognitive Services, and Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit to automate image classification at scale. 881,650 likes. The Snow Leopard Trust is the largest and oldest organization working solely to protect the endangered snow leopard and its habitat in 12 countries of Central Asia. Photos & Videos. More explicitly, these methods require not just a leopard classifier, but a leopard detector. Over 300 families in Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan participate by making handicraft products from the wool of their livestock to increase their income in return for helping protect the snow leopard in their region.[4]. Lastly, we aggregate results over camera trap photo bursts to give the algorithm additional chances to spot a leopard in a batch of photos. Explore insights and behind-the-scenes technology for breakthrough AI innovations. Snow Leopard Trust, Seattle, WA. This page was last edited on 30 November 2020, at 23:59. This major study is a joint project of the Snow Leopard Trust and the Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation (Mongolia) and is carried out in partnership with Mongolia’s Ministry of Nature, Environment and Green Development and the Mongolia Academy of Sciences, Nordens Ark, Grimso and the Whitley Fund for Nature. Learn to create your own AI experiences with learning paths in conversational AI, machine learning, AI for devices, cognitive services, autonomous systems, AI strategy, and more. Additionally, we add horizontal flips to our dataset to further improve robustness. 882,384 likes. Snow Leopard Trust is rated 4 out of 4 stars by Charity Navigator. [13], Collaboration with zoos and other conservation organizations, Peterson, Alison J. Snow Leopard Trust, Seattle, WA. To create a leopard classifier, we used a technique called transfer learning where we specialize a large general-purpose vision network for a more specific classification task. the results of the program must be verifiable through monitoring programs. Visit www.snowleopard.org to learn more! We've found 1 active and working Snow Leopard Trust coupons. Many open question remain on the biology and behavior of the snow leopard. Help us meet these challenges! [citation needed] With this discovery it is possible to test feces and hair specimens found in the field and identify individual cats. Dr. George Schaller, one of the first people to ever study snow leopards, and Dr. Urs Breitenmoser, co-Chair of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group, delivered keynote address. 882,191 likes. These spots serve as social meeting points for leopards and play important roles in their communication. The aim of this project is to study all aspects of snow leopard ecology, and researchers will employ a variety of methods including trap cameras and GPS radio collaring. In particular, researchers found that she traveled a 1,563 km2 area, splitting her time between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Visit www.snowleopard.org to learn more! The Snow Leopard Trust used Microsoft AI to build a scalable image recognition program that is roughly 95 percent accurate in identifying snow leopards in camera trap photos. Snow Leopard Trust, Seattle, WA. You can empower more rangers, women, and youth to join the fight. Map data provided by IUCN. Their population is a key indicator for the health of the whole ecosystem, but they can be difficult to spot and track in the wild. The AI for Earth program connects researchers in environmental science with the AI and computing resources they need to accomplish their goals. Caregivers can view a live stream from anywhere and receive notifications if the device detects any issues. When a region has been identified as a place of significant snow leopard habitat, the trust works with local residents to understand their needs and then jointly develop conservation programs. This was the first-ever study of wild snow leopards using GPS radio technology[8] and was conducted by the Snow Leopard Trust in conjunction with Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province Wildlife Department and WWF–Pakistan. The Snow Leopard Trust (SLT) is the oldest and largest organization working to better understand leopard behavior and habitat. Learn more about our work >> Latest Snow Leopard News & Stories Welcome to the Partners Principles Online Toolkit The Snow Leopard Trust works in 5 of the 12 countries where snow leopards are found. The program has also developed open-source tools to accelerate camera trap image analysis. To claim a donation as a deduction on your U.S. taxes, please keep your email donation receipt as your official record. Snow leopards are found in 12 central Asian countries, including India, China and Mongolia. Snow leopards have evolved to live in some of the harshest conditions on Earth. You can accelerate snow leopard science to reach new mountains. The trust is a non-profit organization with its headquarters in Seattle, Washington. Gen Studio is a prototype created with collaborators from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Microsoft, and MIT. The Snow Leopard Trust offers a variety of engaging activities for download to help with learning and for fun! Camera traps capture hundreds of thousands of images that need identification and analysis, a labor-intensive task that can be streamlined with AI services. She later joined the staff of the zoo and was motivated to set up the trust to protect the snow leopard in the wild, and its habitat. A total of 18 snow leopards have been equipped with GPS tracking collars. Cultivating a diverse and inclusive staff is a priority. All range countries should expedite development of a Snow Leopard Action Plan, or implement existing plans to the fullest extent. The organization is run by Michael Despines and has an annual revenue of $2,572,610. Due the cats’ remote habitat, expansive range and extremely elusive nature, researchers use motion-triggered camera traps to observe snow leopards in the wild. Jumpstart your own AI innovations with learning resources and development solutions from Microsoft AI. These programs decrease snow leopard attacks, safeguard livelihoods, and improve attitudes towards predators— and that means safer passage for cats as they travel near local communities. The team additionally created a live dashboard that highlights snow leopard hot spots. It has an extremely patchy and fragmented distribution throughout its range. With your help, we protect the endangered snow leopard. The Trust is active in all seven provinces in Mongolia, which is home to the second largest snow leopard population in the world. 882,165 likes. Leading conservationists and researchers, as well as government officials from 11 of the 12 snow leopard range countries were among the more than 100 conference attendees. In order to answer these questions and design conservation programs accordingly, The Snow Leopard Trust conducts and supports snow leopard research. She also began the trust’s philosophy of helping the people sharing the snow leopard’s habitat improve their standard of living in exchange for protecting the animal.[2]. The team additionally created a live dashboard that highlights snow leopard hot spots. Machine Learning Blog: Saving Snow Leopards with Deep Learning and Computer Vision on Spark, Learn about machine learning at AI School, Deep Learning Without Labels: The Challenges of Snow Leopard Conservation, Academic Paper on Unsupervised Snow Leopard Detection on Spark, Microsoft Machine Learning for Apache Spark at GitHub, Learn about The Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit. Bayad’s movements were tracked for a total of 14 months, and yielded more data than has ever been gathered using conventional VHF radio collars. The estimated global population of the species is 4500 to 7500 individuals. Snow Leopard Trust is a Wildlife Conservation charity located in Seattle, WA. Snow Leopard Trust 4649 Sunnyside Avenue North Suite 325 Seattle, WA 98103 USA Email: shop@snowleopard.org Phone: (206) 632-2421 Fax: (206) 632-3967 The signature element of the Natural Partnerships Program is the opportunity for zoos to get directly involved with the trust's conservation programs in the snow leopard's range countries. Their white-gray coat spotted with large black rosettes blends in perfectly with the steep and rocky mountains of Central Asia. Clean Water AI uses deep learning to detect dangerous bacteria and particles in water. 882,227 likes. We can use some of Bing’s collective intelligence by searching for images of leopards and images of empty hillsides to augment our dataset. Outputs of the conference include an updated map of snow leopard range, country-specific action plans and three resolutions. To tackle this problem, we use tools like HotSpotter to identify individual leopards based on their spot patterns. Check out our snow leopard trust selection for the very best in unique or custom, handmade pieces from our shops. Snow Leopard Trust 4649 Sunnyside Avenue North Suite 325 Seattle, WA 98103 USA Email: shop@snowleopard.org Phone: (206) 632-2421 Fax: (206) 632-3967 The organization raises money through donations, grants, fundraising events and sales of products on its website shop, and is supported by zoos and other conservation organizations. Currently, the Snow Leopard Trust focuses its efforts in five snow leopard range countries: China, India, Mongolia, Pakistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Range state governments will develop mechanisms (e.g., Memoranda of Understanding) to promote transboundary cooperation on matters such as trade, research and management relevant to snow leopard conservation that include, inter alia, the impacts of climate change on distribution and long-term survival of snow leopards, and where possible incorporate positive actions within conservation programs (e.g., carbon neutral projects). Great conservation continues, but daily correspondence and order processing times will be delayed. It makes a huge difference for these families and eliminates one of the major drivers of retaliation killings. Using Microsoft ML for Apache Spark, we can combine the accuracy and flexibility of deep models with the elastic scalability of Apache Spark to quickly featurize all images in the dataset and learn a classifier based on these features. The trust is a non-profit organization with its headquarters in Seattle, Washington. [7] AI, machine learning, and cognitive services are helping researchers find and protect threatened snow leopard populations. Zoos also have an important role to play in snow leopard conservation. The Snow Leopard Trust used Microsoft AI to build a scalable image recognition program that is roughly 95 percent accurate in identifying snow leopards in camera trap photos. At the end of each year, communities receive a bonus when no poaching has occurred. Collectively, these 5 countries contain over 75% of the world’s population of wild snow leopards. Spotting well-camouflaged leopards within these photos is a labor-intensive task that AI can accomplish in minutes. We are committed to accountability, transparency, and making sure your donations go toward saving snow leopards. At the forum, held in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, officials and conservationists discussed urgent actions and a new global strategy to address conservation of the endangered snow leopard and its habitat in the critical ecosystems of Central Asia; culminating in the adoption of the Bishkek Declaration on the Conservation of the Snow Leopard and the Global Snow Leopard Ecosystem Recovery Program (GSLEP). [1], The trust was founded in 1981 by Helen Elaine Freeman. In these countries, the trust employs and trains staff to carry out research, education, and conservation. With your help, we protect the endangered snow leopard. However, these tools often require well-behaved, cropped images of the target animal. The SLN was started in 2002 at the Snow Leopard Survival Summit in Seattle, Washington, United States, as a means for snow leopard conservationists to co-operate on research and to address the challenges impacting the snow leopard’s survival while ensuring the livelihood opportunities of local people in snow leopard regions. More specifically, it is tough to distinguish between an ecosystem with many shy leopards, and one with a few curious leopards that like to take selfies. With your help, we protect the endangered snow leopard. In these hard and uncertain times, we can unite to keep this important work going--together we are truly mighty. This solution will use your phone camera to measure and track the angle, orientation, and distance of an item in real time. The E:Environmental Magazine (May–June 2005). View album Photos of Snow Leopards in Zoos. You can provide a lifeline for snow leopards. Since the cameras trigger on any type of movement, most of the images are of goats, birds, and grass blowing in the wind. These countries are China, Mongolia, India, Pakistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Visit www.snowleopard.org to learn more! [according to whom?]. In 2011, the program won the BBC World Challenge, a global competition aimed at finding projects from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level.[5]. To transform our classifier into something that could highlight the patterns of the leopard, we created a distributed implementation of the black box model interpretability technique, LIME. Start building AI solutions with powerful tools and services. The team additionally created a live dashboard that highlights snow leopard hot spots. Scientists use camera traps to spot snow leopards in their natural habitats with minimal disruption. About Snow Leopard Trust. Gen Studio uses AI to visually navigate The Met’s art collection. [10] The trust continues to support the range countries in the implementation of the GSLEP. Manually reviewing all images to find a snow-leopards could take thousands of hours of time. View album Make a Donation Today. Snow Leopard Trust receives 91.24 out of 100 for their Charity Navigator rating. We augment our basic pipeline with several additional features to improve performance. [citation needed], Through its Indian partner NGO, Nature Conservation Foundation, and in collaboration with the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department, the trust will launch a similar, long-term snow leopard study in Spiti Valley, India, in the fall of 2014. Co-operation with communities in snow leopard range countries forms the basis of the trust's on-the-ground conservation work. The Snow Leopard Trust is the largest and oldest organization working solely to protect the endangered snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and its habitat in 12 countries of Central Asia. With your help, we protect the endangered snow leopard. Snow Leopard Trust, Seattle, WA. Go to the home page of Snow Leopard Trust Search for: About; News; Photos & Videos; The Snow Leopard; The Threats; Our Work; Take Action; Donate; Adopt; Shop; Snow Leopard Trust. Contact. There are many ways that zoos can be involved in the Natural Partnerships Program, including selling Snow Leopard Enterprises merchandise through their gift shops, offering joint membership agreements, hosting Snow Leopard Trust speakers, and displaying educational materials. In 2013, the Snow Leopard Trust was a key technical partner and co-organizer of the Global Snow Leopard Conservation Forum, a gathering of all 12 snow leopard range countries jointly organized by the Office of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic Almazbek Atambayev and the State Agency on Environmental Protection and Forestry under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic. Camera traps capture hundreds of thousands of photos of snow leopards in the wild.