On Angel's Wings

Snow Leopard ~ Angel Wings

The snow leopard has been a familiar friend on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) redlist since 1986 when it was originally listed as endangered. Current population trends are on a decline. IUCN's population estimation is 2,710-3,386 mature adults left in the world. Indeed, the future of the snow leopard would not look so good if it weren't for the dedicated conservationists working so hard to protect them.

The main threat snow leopards face is human wildlife conflict with the pastoral people living in the highlands of Asia. The Snow Leopard Conservancy is combating this issue by helping to protect the people's livestock from snow leopards and in turn saving the snow leopards from retaliatory killing. One of the main efforts of the conservationists have been to build better livestock corrals. After three years of implementing the corral project they have seen some major progress.

• 0 recorded instances of snow leopards killing livestock
• 6,000 domestic animals kept safe from snow leopards at night
• 100 snow leopards protected from retaliation for livestock killing
• 50 herders trained to design and build better corrals

The conservationists at work have been the snow leopards' guardian angels. Their story inspired me to paint a snow leopard on a slab of rock called angel wings. My grandpa and I went rock hounding to find this pretty little stones and I knew it needed something special to be painted on it. In this case, I chose a snow leopard to remind me and all the world of the guardian angels all across our planet helping to save endangered and threatened species. 

This piece is part of my WCN fall expo collection and 100% of the profit was donated to protecting threatened wildlife like the snow leopard. While this piece is no longer available it is featured in my calendar on the Shop Painting page.