New data on the location of the snow leopard Panthera uncia (Schreber, 1775) and the stone marten Martes foina (Erxleben, 1777) in the Katon- Karagai State National Natural Park

The article provides new data on the location and distribution of the snow leopard Panthera uncia and the stone marten Martes foina in the Katon-Karagai State National Natural Park (South-Western Altai, Eastern Kazakhstan). The data were obtained using camera traps.


Introduction
The Katon-Karagai State National Natural Park is located in the upper and middle reaches of the Bukhtarma river (south-western Altai); its area is 643,477 ha. It includes Sarymsakty, Southern Altai, Altai Tarbagatai ridges, and the southern macroslopes of the Listvyaga ridge and part of the Katunsky ridge with one of the highest points of Altai and Siberia -Mount Belukha. The Park's territory with the adjacent lands of the village administration is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve "Katon-Karagai" and a part of the UNESCO Transboundary Biosphere Reserve "Great Altai".

Material and methods
The main object of the study was the snow leopard Panthera uncia (Scherber, 1775) on the territory of the Katon-Karagai National Park; along the way, the research covered such rare and endangered species as the stone marten Martes foina (Erxleben, 1777) and the Altai ular Tetraogallus altaicus (Gebler,1836). In the study, we used widely spread observation methods such as camera traps. The camera traps of Bushnell and SEELOСK were used. The a.s.l. altitude was captured with Garmin GPS. The coordinates are not listed intentionally to protect the species listed in the Red Book of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The study with camera traps has been conducted in the Park since 2013 (Chelyshev, Gabdullina, 2018). In 2020, camera traps were installed on the Altai Tarbagatai and Sarymsakty ridges by the park staff; then, they were taken off in March and April 2021. After cameral processing of the photo and video materials, we obtained the first video of the snow leopard from the Altai Tarbagatai ridge in particular and from Kazakhstan Altai in general; we got the first photos of this animal from Sarymsakty ridge, and the first photo of the stone marten from the Park territory.
The snow leopard, or irbis P. uncia (Scherber, 1775), is a species included into the Red Book of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as a Category 3 -rare species, and in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as VU -Vulnerable. Earlier meetings of the snow leopard and its tracks on the Sarymsakty ridge were repeatedly recorded until 1991; later snow leopard tracks were only seen here in winter 2008-2009(Vorobyov, 2018. The latest data on the snow leopard from the territory of the Katon-Karagai SNPP was obtained in 2019 (Gabdullina, Amanbaev, 2019).
The stone marten M. foina (Erxleben, 1777) is included into the Red Book of the Republic of Kazakhstan -Category 3, a rare species, and in the IUCN Red List as the species of least concern (LC). The stone marten was met in the 80-90s of the XX century on the left bank of the Bukhtarma near the villages of Korobikha and Moyldy (formerly Kamenka); the last meeting of the tracks was recorded near the village of Katon-Karagai in 2014 (Vorobyov, 2018).
Thus, from November 20 to January 31 of 2020, the snow leopard passed by the camera trap four times, and in 2021 from January 1 to March 20 -6 times.