An army of children have been hired by Conservationists to record to movements and habits of the mysterious snow leopard.
Experts say that only 500 adults survive in the Himalayan nation and it is rare for one to claim to have seen it.
The big cat is known as the “mountain ghost” in Nepal and lives 5,000 to 6,000 metres (16,500 to 20,000 ft) above sea level.
“Snow leopards are inherently rare, and also elusive in the sense that they are active during dusk and dawn, so few people, including biologists, have seen a snow leopard to date,” Som Ale of the US-based Snow Leopard Conservancy told Dawn.
Children from schools in the leopard’s home of Mustang, Nepal’s mountainous northern frontier, will work in pairs to place and monitor digital cameras to count the solitary species.
The census will be carried out over two months in the winter and will give scientists a more clear idea of how many of the endangered species there are, compared to recording tracks and collecting droppings.
The students will be trained operate in sub-zero temperatures, where snow leopards are more likely to visit, as well as to set up digital cameras that take infra-red images.
