Post on 31-Mar-2015
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