Snow Leopard Stories

Meet the puppies that protect herder families and snow leopards in Mongolia.

Samundra Subba is a research officer at WWF Nepal with a focus on large carnivores—primarily tigers and snow leopards. He’s joined six satellite telemetry expeditions of snow leopards. This is his journey.

In May 2021, a team of WWF scientists, national park staff, veterinarians, and 17 citizen scientists set out on an expedition in the Dolpo region of Shey Phoksundo National Park.

Scientists successfully collared two snow leopards in Western Nepal—a feat that will help researchers learn more about this elusive and vulnerable species. The satellite GPS collaring of these big cats brings Nepal’s tally of collared snow leopards to eight.

Snow leopards live in some of the most rugged landscapes in Asia’s high mountains, which makes it incredibly difficult to study these rare and elusive big cats. A large majority of snow leopard habitat remains under-researched, according to the first-ever systematic review of snow leopard research conducted to date.

Mongolia’s first-ever national snow leopard survey shows that the country’s population of this elusive, big cat is stable. The survey confirmed the presence of approximately 953 snow leopards—an exciting discovery because it indicates that current conservation efforts are effective and will help develop future strategies to protect this charismatic big cat.

Dairy is a staple in the diets of Mongolian people but until recently, the sale of milk products was not a prominent source of income for local herders. As it turns out, diversifying community livelihood options in this village in the Bayan-ulgii province has also led to increased protections for snow leopards in the area. A win for people, and a win for nature.

Elusive and solitary nature, snow leopards are rarely spotted and even less frequently studied within their rugged and harsh habitat. However last November, two snow leopards were captured, fitted with satellite-GPS collars, and successfully released back into their rocky homeland in Western Nepal. The two male snow leopards were the first since the 1980s to be fitted with collars within Shey Phoksundo National Park in Western Nepal.

The population of snow leopards in Russia has remained stable for the past three years, according to a recent WWF survey. This may not seem groundbreaking, but it is, in fact, excellent news.

Last winter, a WWF census found a total of 61 snow leopards in Russia’s Altai-Sayan Ecoregion, a remote landscape where high, snowy mountain ranges offer a last refuge for this rare feline. Snow leopard numbers have been relatively steady in Russia since WWF and partners first began monitoring them three years ago. But with fewer than 7,000 estimated to live in the wild, they remain endangered.

Our “At the Top of the World” feature introduced a rural herding community in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan as they worked to protect snow leopards and adapt to climate change. Here's where we are now.

For perhaps the first time ever, a snow leopard was captured by a camera trap in a remote forest in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Arunachal Pradesh remains largely unexplored, making this photographic evidence of snow leopards especially significant. 

In Kyrgyzstan, community based conservation activities led by Farida Balbakova have paved the way for an integrated, climate-smart landscape management plan to protect the snow leopard.

A snow leopard was successfully collared in Kangchenjunga Conservation Area on May 8, 2017 making it the fourth one to be collared in Nepal’s eastern snow leopard conservation complex.

Phuchung Lachenpa and his team are using local knowledge to set up camera traps throughout their region, laying groundwork for improving snow leopard conservation efforts. 

The animals of the Central Tian Shan mountain range find protection from unlikely guardians: the residents of nearby mountain communities. 

Through the release of its new film, Born in China, Disneynature takes moviegoers on a journey into the wilds of China. The film will support WWF’s comprehensive conservation efforts in China and funds raised from Born in China will focus on improving landscape connectivity and integrity across three landscapes that are home to the species in the film and covering the traditional range of the giant panda. 

In the 19 years Tenzin has been working in conservation, Wangchuck Centennial National Park's first ever population survey of snow leopards has been the most challenging project, but also the most satisfying. 

Snow leopards scale the great, steep slopes of mountains in Central Asia with ease, blending into the landscape. But these endangered cats face many threats including habitat loss, reduced prey and retaliatory killings. WWF works to reduce human-leopard conflict and protect the fragile snow leopard habitat.

Three years ago, researchers from WWF-Mongolia set up camera traps to photograph snow leopards in and around Khovd Aimag’s Jargalant Khairkhan Mountain, located in western Mongolia’s Altai Mountains, to determine the elusive cat’s population size and distribution.

Just beyond the remote mountain village of Yangma in the high Himalayas of eastern Nepal, Nepali conservationists fitted a female snow leopard with a GPS collar. The collar will allow scientists to track this snow leopard’s movements daily for the next year, which will help us learn more about these mysterious and endangered cats. This female becomes the third snow leopard collared near Yangma since 2013, the first two having both been males.

Over 40 representatives from nine of 12 snow leopard range countries gathered in Kathmandu, Nepal, in April 2016 for a workshop on climate smart conservation planning at the landscape level to protect the iconic snow leopard and its habitat.

Snow leopards, fresh water & climate change

Overlapping heavily with snow leopard habitat, the Third Pole encompasses the snow-covered mountains surrounding the Tibetan Plateau. The Pole’s thousands of glaciers and regular snow melt form the headwaters for 10 of Asia’s biggest rivers, which bring drinking water, power and irrigation directly to 210 million people, while these river basins indirectly support more than 1.3 billion people.