geekosystem

Say you're hiking in the Himalayas and you happen to spot the Abominable Snowman. Whether it's throwing snowballs at you, running away, or just minding its own abominable business, if you don't have a permit to "carry out an expedition" specifically in search of it, you'd better leave it alone. And definitely don't you dare take a shot at it. Wait, you think this is a joke? If it was, the American Embassy in Nepal wasn't cracking a smile in 1957 when it issued a memo that stipulated the rules for Yeti hunting.

There are a lot of troubles facing endangered snow leopards in the Himalayan mountains that conservationists and others working to save the big cats can't really control -- habitat loss, poaching,  and Yeti rampages, just to name a few. In the interest of lighting a candle rather than cursing the darkness, though, Nepalese yak herders have decided to do something about one of the dangers to the cats: The herders themselves, who are known to shoot the animals to protect the lives -- or avenge the deaths -- of the yaks they depend on for their livelihoods. To do so, they've pooled their resources and worked with the University of Zurich to create a yak insurance fund that covers the loss of livestock to snow leopards, preserving farmers ability to feed their families and offering less incentive to hunt down snow leopards in the wake of the death of their yak, sheep, or goats.

If you don't think of "being exceedingly reasonable about scheduling matters" as a trait generally shown by big cats who chase down and eat small, fluffy things, you're not alone. A group of tigers in Nepal, however, is demonstrating a degree of tact and diplomacy not usually seen in quarter-ton feline killing machines. The tigers of Nepal's Chitwan National Park have changed from their normal daytime feeding habits to make their living as nocturnal predators, seemingly in the interest of avoiding conflict with the humans who call the area home and share many of the same roads and trails used by tigers.