Well- we've been working over the past few weeks to settle on a solar-electric fence setup that would be capable of deterring hungry bears from breaking into nomads' winter homes while they are away with their herds for the summers. Our first choice was to build 6-strand, high-tensile fences with 12volt solar chargers- but equipment and shipping costs made these less than ideal. (Consider that many of these families live on less than $1000 per year and that any expenditures in their interest could be readily applied to a number of competing demands, not the least of which are education and medical facilities). Two other setups were also considered: 12v chargers with poly-tape lines and 6v chargers with poly-wire lines. We decided to try one each of those setups and will hopefully have them installed within the next month- the height of bear break-in season. The folks at Kencove and especially The McGregor Fence Company were really helpful in getting us info and equipment that we needed. Maybe we can get our expert Levi over there to check our setup next fall.
In other news, Apple's newest operating system will be released next year under the name "Snow Leopard". It is our hope that this publicity will bring increased awareness and support for snow leopard conservation in inner Asia. I've been using (abusing, actually) my Apple laptop on the Tibetan Plateau since 2004 and it's still going strong. Think they'll give me a new one since we're working with snow leopards?
