Snow leopards face threats from retaliatory killing by herders, prey depletion, and climate change that is shifting their high-altitude habitat and prey distributions, creating welfare challenges for one of the most elusive big cats.
Snow leopard welfare is shaped by the human-wildlife conflict that makes their remote mountain habitat increasingly hazardous. A snow leopard that kills livestock faces the real probability of retaliatory killing through poisoning, snaring, or shooting — a death that may involve significant suffering depending on the method used. The underlying driver of this conflict is poverty among herder communities who cannot absorb livestock losses. Addressing herder livelihoods through livestock insurance and alternative income programs simultaneously removes the welfare threat to snow leopards and improves the welfare of herder communities — a genuine win-win that has been demonstrated in programs across their range.