Right now, in the remote peaks of Mongolia, cameras are quietly documenting moments most people will never witness: wild snow leopards roaming through their mountain kingdoms. Each image—triggered by motion as a cat passes by—tells part of a larger story about survival, behavior and what it takes to protect one of Earth’s most elusive big cats.
For many women living in snow leopard habitat, these endangered cats are often viewed as a threat to their livelihoods. As the primary caretakers of livestock, they feel the loss deeply when a snow leopard kills an animal, leading to an understandably negative view of the species. But a groundbreaking program in India is rewriting that narrative.
After nearly two decades without a national-scale gathering, Mongolia’s snow leopard community came together recently to address an urgent reality: the threats facing these cats have fundamentally changed, and so must the response.
In the mountains of Tost, Mongolia, every snow leopard mother faces the same ultimate challenge: keeping her cubs alive. Our Senior Scientist, Dr. Örjan Johansson shares how two snow leopard mothers with new litters have chosen remarkably different strategies to ensure their cubs’ survival.
You’ve probably heard us say that there may be as few as 4,000 snow leopards left in the wild today. But what about a million years ago? New research from a study between Stanford University, Snow Leopard Trust and other collaborators suggests that snow leopards have had a consistently low population for at least the last nine hundred thousand years – and that could spell trouble for their future.
High in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, an unlikely partnership is buzzing with possibility. Some local herding families are shifting their exclusive focus on livestock to include something sweeter—one that will make a difference for the endangered snow leopard. Beekeeping. What do honeybees have to do with snow leopards? Mountain communities have depended on grazing their …
Elizabeth Brill spends her days preserving intricate works of art and science as a Blaschka Glass Marine Invertebrate Preservation Specialist. But when that workday ends, her heart travels thousands of miles away to the high mountains of Asia, where snow leopards roam.
For decades, the snow leopard has roamed silently across Pakistan’s high peaks, rarely seen and never counted. For the first time, researchers at our partner organization in the country, Snow Leopard Foundation, have produced a robust, nationwide estimate of its population. The results are sobering: the two independent methods employed yielded estimates of 155 and 167 individuals, scattered across some of the world’s most inhospitable terrain.
In the remote Kuju Valley of Chitral, a young woman with a passion for education and social impact is transforming her community through her leadership and commitment to conservation. This success story comes from our partner organization in Pakistan, Snow Leopard Foundation.
Findings from a new study have upended long-held assumptions about snow leopard eating habits. The results? Bigger is (almost) always better.
