Himalayan marmots (Marmota himalayana) are poached in Nepal. Brakonerskiï promysel gimalaöskogo sourka Marmota himalayana Hodgson (1841) v Nepale. [Les marmottes himalayennes Marmota himalayana sont braconnées au Népal].

Résumé

In Nepal in contrast to the neighbor China (WangSibo, YangGanyun, 1983) business based on marmot hunting is not developed, however we have got direct evidence that people still poach marmots in Nepal. Near the village Sama (mountain massif Manaslu, altitude 3500 m) we found a hunting loop at one burrow; several dozen of burrow entrances were dug out, closed with stones, or the entrances were blocked up by stone barriers put by hunters. The host of the house we stayed, native of this village, was surprised by our finds and said that local people did not hunt marmots. In his opinion marmots are hunted by people who have come from the neighbor Tibet. We could not check whether it was so. Method of marmot hunting in Nepal does not differ from the one used in case of steppe marmot (M. bobak) in Ukraine in Kharkov region. The only difference is that in Ukraine the loop is made from thin steel multifibre rope, while here - from plastic multifibre rope. In Ukraine burrow entrances are blocked up by metal parts of tractor and other agricultural vehicles, while in the Himalayas people use stones numerous around or sticks taken from the nearest forest. In spite of surprising "convergence" of hunting method we have no reasons to think that Ukrainian poachers penetrated to the Himalayas. Olga Shpack (Kharkov University, Ukraine) told us that in India, West Himalayas, state HimachalPradesh (altitude 4000 m) local road-building workers of untouchable caste catch marmots using loops and eat them. It is difficult to estimate scale of marmot hunting in Nepal. Most likely number of hunted marmots does not exceed hundreds animals per season and hunting is rather accidental. We can just as sert that people in Nepal hunt marmots, and this hunting can be defined as poaching if judge by used methods.