Wildlife and conservation articles, wild travel advice and reviews
Snow Leopard
Snow leopards are not actually closely related to leopards. In fact they split from tigers more recently. Their worldwide wild population is thought to fall between 4000 and 6500, though as they are incredibly hard to see it is hard to count these cats accurately.
A Margay from Costa Rica Taken by Supreet Sahoo
Currently found from the Northern points of Mexico (it has not been seen in the USA since 1855 – indeed the only USA record comes from this time,, however fossils show it once ranged through Southern Texas, and may even have roamed as through Georgia Florida and South Carolina – or at least an animal very similar) through central America to Brazil and Paraguay and even reaching as far south as Uruguay and Argentina.
This map shows the former and current snow leopard range. Unfortunately the red is the former range
They are found throughout the Himalayas, including Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. However, remember that generally the snow leopards are free to cross borders, so their range is likely to be spotty.
It is hard to get accurate figures or indeed locations of where snow leopards are found, should you be looking at going on a snow leopard tour, they will know where snow leopards are currently found. As we link with people we will add these below. our news section
Nepal has significant populations of Tigers Leopards and Snow Leopards. Historical knowledge would state that tigers rule on the countries southern plains, Leopards rule in the mid country hill region and Snow leopards in the Himalayas.
The Indian cheetah was lost from India back in 1952. Hosting Tigers, Lions, Leopards, and Snow Leopards within its borders, it was a mark of pride when the cheetah reintroduction was announced. It is certainly true that cheetah once roamed India, and as the only cat to be lost in theory I would agree that …
Argued back and forth for decades (since their local extinction in 1952), the idea of reintroducing cheetah has never gone away for India. For the government, it is clearly at least partly a matter of pride – as the only home of the Asiatic lion, claiming over 50% of remaining wild tigers living within its …
Over the last couple of years, snow leopards have been sighted in Pingwu county – Sichuan province. This confirms that the range of the snow leopard has expanded eastward as this reserve takes shape. Pingwu supports around 335 Pandas, or around 20% of the Chinese total. This Giant Panda national park will include 70.25% of …
Apex predators are extremely important for ecosystem survival, as they control the numbers of smaller species. Unfortunately these species are doing poorly as a whole. Below I have concentrated on on the biggest cats as they have a huge impact on the ecosystem that they live in. Unfortunately all are declining rapidly. Lions: as the …
We have watched with horror, the problems that Myanmar has suffered over the last few decades. Perhaps one of the positives though is the fact that often when this sort of thing happens ecosystems are given time to recover. This appears to be the case in the the snowy north. 40 different large mammals were …
There is an impressive wealth of cats living in India. From the Indian tiger (known throughout the world) to the Asiatic lions last home- the gir forests of west india (the asiatic lion once roamed across Asia, throughout southern Europe, across northern and western Africa – therefore there are probably more “Asiatic” lion in Africa …
