Snow Leopard Trust

Snow leopards are Asia's most-studied big cat, with more publications and tracking collars than any relative. Yet at a recent Snow Leopard Network webinar, leading scientists were candid about how much we still don't know.

Their territorial behavior comes mostly from Mongolia, and we can't say the patterns hold elsewhere. We know little about how they compete with common leopards and tigers, which a warming climate is pushing upslope onto shared ground.

Population estimates have needed honest correction too: earlier global figures leaned on the best-studied habitat and ran high. Reclassifying the species from endangered to vulnerable meant better counting, not recovery. The answers require fewer scattered surveys and more years of study in the same places.

https://snowleopardnetwork.org/2026/07/01/sln-panel-discussion-snow-leopard-whats-next-2/

The Snow Leopard Network, a coalition the Snow Leopard Trust helped build and supports, connects researchers across countries and keeps population science consistent between them.

SLN Panel Discussion: Snow Leopard: What’s Next? – Snow Leopard Network SLN Panel Discussion: Snow Leopard: What’s Next? Posted on 07/202607/2026Author Flavia FranchiniCategories WebinarTags Webinar This is the second part of our webinar series, hosted by Integrative Conservation in collaboration with the Snow Leopard Network. We are bringing together a panel of dis...

Following Seven Cats Across Mongolia's Tost Mountains

Every year, our team tracks and collars snow leopards in Mongolia's Tost Mountains alongside our partners at the Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation (SLCF), building nearly two decades of data on how these elusive, solitary cats raise young, establish territory, and move across the mountains. Dr. Gustaf Samelius leads this work in the field.

This year we're following the movements of seven of these cats across the Tost Mountains, and together their stories cover three things we're working to understand: how often these cats reproduce, how they establish and share territory, and how far they travel to find it.

- A female first collared a decade ago just had her fourth litter, making her the most studied snow leopard in the world.
- A male roams territory spanning three different females while staying clear of the routes larger males use, a pattern that doesn't quite add up.
- A cat turned up 50 km from where she was collared, in a mountain range nobody expected her to be in.

Read the blog: https://snowleopard.org/where-are-the-cats-now-spring-field-update-part-2/

[Photo credit: Joseph Bump and SLCF-Mongolia]

Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation
Snowleopard Mongolia

Happy Earth Day!

Snow Leopard Trust has partnered with Indigenous Peoples and local communities across Asia's high mountains for over 40 years. Our conservation work to protect the iconic snow leopard would be impossible without the collective knowledge and experience of the communities that have lived here and cared for the land for countless generations.

We are all stewards of the Earth, and each of us can take actions to protect the lands where we live, on Earth Day and beyond!