Protecting Snow Leopards

DSWF’s support is making significant impact towards conservation of snow leopards in Mongolia, the second most important snow leopard range country in the world after China. Threats to snow leopards in Mongolia include retaliatory killing due to livestock depredation, climate change and pressures from intensive livestock grazing, poaching and illegal killing of snow leopards and their wild prey, habitat loss due to mining, and inadequate conservation awareness among local communities.

DSWF’s ground-based conservation partners, The Snow Leopard Trust, program supports seven community rangers who patrolled a total of 5,750 kilometres on foot and a further 12,500 kilometres on motorcycles within Tost Nature Reserve in the last year. An estimated 3,500-7,000 snow leopards remain in the wild in the mountains of Asia. The Snow Leopard Trusts’ research in southern Mongolia has contributed to the latest Population Assessment of the World’s Snow Leopards. Based on data from a total of 1,500 camera traps, the preliminary estimate places Mongolia’s snow leopard population at 953 individuals. A multi-year population assessment of snow leopards in the Tost Nature Reserve between 2009 and 2018 suggested there was a minimum of 13-15 adult snow leopards. These numbers represent a stable, breeding population of snow leopards in the region. The Tost Nature Reserve connects the Great Gobi and Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, making it safer for wildlife to move between the three protected areas. Only traditional herding practices are allowed in the protected areas, whereas hunting, mining and construction are prohibited.

In 2021, the Snow Leopard Trust publicly announced their new snow leopard estimate findings while continuing to review data from a handful of remaining camera trap sites. They hope to reach a final and more accurate estimate later in 2022 and will then publish the findings in a peer-review article. It is anticipated that with the final estimate, Mongolia will be the first of the 12 snow leopard range countries to reach a reliable estimate of its snow leopard population—a huge milestone that DSWF’s long-term support has helped make possible.

Working towards the long-term goal to secure greater protection for snow leopards in Mongolia, the Snow Leopard Trust are expanding and strengthening collaborations with rural communities through income stabilising programs (enterprises such as handicrafts, livestock insurance, corral improvements and an industry program for domestic dairy product sales). 194 women from herder communities in south and west Mongolia participated in the enterprise program in the past year. These programs help increase understanding and tolerance for snow leopards, which leads to more positive attitudes towards conservation and reduces retribution killing of snow leopards.

Find out more about our work with snow leopards