Snow leopards are elusive apex predators of Central Asian mountains. Human-wildlife conflict, habitat degradation, and climate change create welfare challenges for this vulnerable species.
Snow leopards face welfare threats primarily through human-wildlife conflict. When wild prey populations are depleted by overgrazing or hunting, snow leopards turn to domestic livestock, triggering retaliatory killing by herders who often have no compensation mechanism. Trapping methods used in retaliation — including snares and poison — can cause prolonged suffering. Climate change is reducing the high-altitude habitat that snow leopards depend on, increasing energy expenditure as animals must travel further for prey and territory. Poaching for the traditional medicine trade, while reduced from historical peaks, still causes individual deaths from trapping and snaring. The snow leopard's naturally low density and large territory requirements make population recovery slow even when direct threats are reduced.