The Grizzly Bear, the Snow Leopard, the Orangutan—these animals
were once thought to be mere folklore before their existences
were proven with hard, biological evidence. Now, one research
team wants to harvest the same evidence from the world's wilds
using a natural collection network of leeches. Monitoring
wildlife is both an essential aspect of any conservation effort
and one of its most difficult challenges. Getting researchers,
equipment, and monitoring tools into the field for a sufficient
length of time and back is a logistical nightmare. And it's only
made more difficult when the wildlife being surveyed is
exceedingly rare or shy—or both, as in the case of the Snow
Leopard. "The problem is particularly acute in tropical forests,
where a disproportionate number of species are listed by IUCN as
‘data deficient', due to the difficulty of monitoring with
conventional approaches. This presents serious obstacles to
conservation management," states the report's summary. So
instead of combing the forest floor