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Submitted photo
About 30 Central Heights students, members of Amanda Stinebaugh’s science classes, each chipped in money to adopt an endangered snow leopard through the World Wildlife Federation. “The kids are very proud of themselves,” Stinebaugh said.
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Central Heights students adopt new mascot of sorts — a snow leopard
By CLEON RICKEL, Herald Senior Writer
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CENTRAL HEIGHTS — Around most of Central Heights High School, they’re the Vikings. But in certain rooms, students are the snow leopards.
About 30 of Amanda Stinebaugh’s science students chipped in a few bucks each to adopt an endangered snow leopard through the World Wildlife Federation.
“The kids are very proud of themselves,” she said.
The program proved so popular that Stinebaugh, who is in her first year at Central Heights but a long-time contributor to the federation, said she’ll do it again next year.
Stinebaugh said she described the adoption program, which is symbolic, to the students and offered to send any money they might choose to contribute for animals’ well-being and habitat.
Students jumped in and started raising the money, she said.
Kayla Brock, Central Heights student who took part, said she was intrigued by the program and was glad chip in.
“I like animals,” Brock said. “Besides, being involved will look good on a college application.”
Brock said she would like to be a marine biologist.
Under the program, anyone who donates $100 “adopts” a snow leopard and gets a description and photo.
Stinebaugh offered to kick in enough money to bring the total contribution to $100 for one snow leopard, Thomas Conaway, a Central Heights sophomore, said.
“I don’t mind helping out a little bit,” Conaway said of the program. “I just wish she would have given me an A.”
The Central Heights contributions went to the care and maintenance of snow leopards being kept on a special preserve in North American and for maintaining their habitats, Stinebaugh said.
The World Wildlife Federation works to preserve endangered species and protect their natural habitats, she said.
There are about 4,000 to 7,000 snow leopards, which puts them on the endangered species list, Stinebaugh said.
The endangered species is a designation by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, designations used by government and private agencies across the world used to describe how close species are to extinction.
The snow leopard is also on the IUCN’s Red List of creatures and ecosystems nearing extinction.
The symbolic adoption program gives people a good way to get involved in helping endangered animals, Kerry Zobor, of the World Wildlife Federation, said.
It has been a popular program, she said.
“There’s really a lot of interest for a lot of people, young people in particular,” Zobor said.
The program gets participation from school students, Scout troops and other youth groups that want to make a difference in helping wildlife, she said.
“This is a very good way to do that,” she said.
Snow leopards have lived in the rugged and mountainous regions of Central and South Asia, Russia, China and in the Himalayas, Stinebaugh said.
They have thick white spotted fur ideal for its snowy, wintry habitat and a large tail and wide paws that allow it to traverse and live in snow.
Because of development and population growth, herders have pushed herds of domestic sheep and goats into remoter areas that have long been the cats’ hunting ranges, according to the WWF’s Web site, www.worldwildlife.org.
Not only has the leopards’ ranges been severely constricted, the domestic herds’ grazing has pushed out the wild sheep and goats that were staples of the cats’ diet, the WWF says.
In many cases the snow leopards attack the domestic animals, which prompts retaliation killings by the herders, whose only source of income and food are the domestic sheep and goats.
In some cases, the herders turn to hunting the snow leopards to supply black markets for wild animal pelts and body parts, the WWF says.
In addition to trying to stop to the illegal traffic in endangered cat skins, and to create and maintain reserves to protect them and other endangered species, the World Wildlife Fund created and supports an anti-poaching team in Mongolia and supports Snow Leopard Enterprises, a Mongolian project that offers herders an opportunity to increase their income in return for protecting the snow leopards.
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