Research in Conservancies of ANCOT
ANCOT and partners see research as an important tool to improve conservation and sustainable use of wildlife and its ecosystems. The conservancy areas provide vast research potential of wildlife populations and their interactions between humans and the ecosystem. ANCOT strongly promotes all research opportunities.
The conservancies and their wildlife populations are used for various studies related to veterinary health of animals, population structure, habitat use, interactions between various species, and direct and indirect human impacts on wildlife and their ecosystems. The local rangers and guides assist in taking of samples and documenting body features of harvested animals.
Sustainable hunting and wildlife management relies heavily on population monitoring based on reliable data. Surveys of wildlife are conducted annually or biannually. To conduct these surveys, ANCOT works closely with officials from state agencies of nature conservation and wildlife management, scientists from the Academy of Sciences, and experts from national and international ANCOTs. Only the most recently collected data are used for setting hunting quotas for each specific area. We also monitor snow leopards and other non-game species to assess the effects of hunting and conservation throughout the conservancy areas.