A snow leopard's life in the wild is difficult.
Yet the snow leopard is supremely adapted to its mountain home , and hunting, raising young, and surviving in the rugged landscape and harsh climate comes naturally. The cat is also the top predator in its ecosystem and has few natural enemies.
The main threat to the snow leopard's survival comes from human activities.
To learn more about our programs to address these threats, go to our Community-Based Conservation section.
Poaching
Snow leopards are hunted illegally for their pelts, which are sought after especially in Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Russia for coats and other garments.
Snow leopard bones and other body parts are also in demand for use in traditional Asian medicine.
Finally, live cats are sometimes captured from the wild for private animal collections in Central Asia.
Many of the poachers are local people from snow leopard areas, who often live on just a few dollars a day. For them, poaching may be a lucrative source of extra income to help them feed their families.
Retribution killings and conflict with herders
Snow leopards sometimes prey on domestic livestock. Herders in snow leopard areas lead precarious economic lives, and their wealth is almost entirely tied up in their herds.
The loss of even a single sheep or goat represents a real economic hardship. Herders often retaliate for these losses by trapping, poisoning, or shooting snow leopards.
Habitat and prey loss
As humans push ever further into mountainous areas with their livestock, the snow leopard's habitat is degraded and fragmented.
Overgrazing damages the fragile mountain grasslands, leaving less food for the wild sheep and goats that are the snow leopard's main prey .
Legal and illegal hunting for meat and trophies is also depleting prey populations.
This situation also increases conflict with local people, because snow leopards are more likely to kill domestic livestock when their natural prey is scarce.
Lack of awareness, policy, and implementation
Effective conservation programs depend on the support of local people in snow leopard areas, but many herders are struggling to provide for their families and have little extra time and energy to devote to protecting other species.
Similarly, many snow leopard range country governments are focused on economic development and providing basic services to their citizens, and it is difficult for them to make environmental protection a policy priority.
Political instability, the lack of money to enforce laws and protected area boundaries, and the difficulty of catching poachers in the snow leopard's remote and rugged habitat all make effective protection for the cat more difficult to secure.
To learn more about our programs to address these threats, go to our Community-Based Conservation section .
