Snow leopards are apex predators of high-altitude Asian landscapes whose survival depends on coexistence programs that address livestock predation conflicts with herding communities.
Snow leopard welfare is tightly coupled to the wellbeing of the herding communities sharing their habitat. When snow leopards kill livestock, herders suffer genuine economic losses that can devastate livelihoods in marginal economies. Retaliatory killing of the offending leopard is an understandable human response that causes individual leopard suffering and death. Livestock loss compensation schemes, predator-proof corrals, and community conservancies that generate income from snow leopard tourism create alternatives to retaliation. The most successful programs treat herder wellbeing and snow leopard survival as inseparable goals rather than competing interests, achieving measurably reduced retaliatory killing.