# Snow Leopard — Facts, Threats & Conservation

*Panthera uncia*

> A snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is a large wild cat native to the high mountains of Central and South Asia, recognised by its pale grey rosette-patterned coat and very long tail, and listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

**IUCN status:** Vulnerable (downlisted from Endangered in 2017) — but fewer than 3,400 mature adults remain  ·  **WARN range:** Pakistan

## Quick facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Lifespan | ~10–12 years in the wild; up to ~20 years in captivity |
| Weight | ~25–55 kg (about 55–120 lb) |
| Body length | ~90–120 cm head and body, plus an 80–100 cm tail |
| Diet | Carnivore — wild sheep and goats (blue sheep, ibex, markhor, argali), marmots, hares, game birds |
| Gestation | ~90–100 days |
| Young per birth | Usually 1–3 cubs |
| Baby name | Cub |
| Vocalisation | Cannot roar — chuffs, mews and growls instead |
| Range | 12 countries of Central and South Asia, including Pakistan |
| CITES | Appendix I (commercial international trade banned) |

## Scientific classification
- **Kingdom:** Animalia
- **Phylum:** Chordata
- **Class:** Mammalia
- **Order:** Carnivora
- **Family:** Felidae
- **Subfamily:** Pantherinae
- **Genus:** Panthera
- **Species:** Panthera uncia (Schreber, 1775)

## Conservation status
- **Status:** Vulnerable
- **Population:** ~7,400–8,000 individuals total; 2,710–3,386 mature adults (IUCN). Figures are uncertain — only a small fraction of the range has been reliably surveyed.
- **Trend:** Decreasing
- **Assessed:** 2017 assessment (downlisted from Endangered); retained as Vulnerable in current IUCN Red List
- **CITES:** Appendix I
- The 2017 move from Endangered to Vulnerable is contested by some specialists who argue the data are too sparse to justify downlisting. Pakistan is estimated to hold roughly 200–420 snow leopards, concentrated in its northern mountains.

## Key facts: Snow Leopard
- The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is a high-altitude big cat of Central and South Asia, not a true subtype of the common leopard despite the shared name.
- The IUCN lists it as Vulnerable; it was downlisted from Endangered in 2017, a decision some scientists still contest given how little of its range has been reliably surveyed.
- Fewer than about 3,400 mature adults are estimated to survive, and the population trend is decreasing.
- Unlike lions and tigers, snow leopards cannot roar; their throat anatomy produces chuffs, mews and growls instead.
- Its enormous tail — almost as long as its body — aids balance on cliffs and wraps around the body as a built-in scarf in sub-zero cold.
- In northern Pakistan, retaliatory killing after livestock losses is a leading threat, making community coexistence work central to the cat's survival.

## Why the snow leopard is threatened
The snow leopard is classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN, with a decreasing population trend and fewer than 3,400 mature adults estimated across its range. It was moved from Endangered to Vulnerable in 2017 because surveys suggested the global decline was slower than once feared, but the change remains debated: only a tiny fraction of the species' rugged range has ever been sampled with reliable methods, so all global figures carry real uncertainty. Threats are stacking up rather than easing. Wild prey such as blue sheep and ibex are being squeezed by competition with domestic herds and by poaching, pushing cats toward livestock. Retaliatory and opportunistic killing, the illegal trade in pelts and bones, infrastructure pushing into mountain valleys, and a warming climate shifting the treeline upward all chip away at habitat that is already naturally sparse and slow to recover.

## Behaviour and mountain ecology
Snow leopards are solitary, mostly crepuscular hunters adapted to some of the harshest terrain any cat occupies. Dense, pale, rosette-marked fur, wide fur-covered paws that work like snowshoes, an enlarged nasal cavity that warms thin cold air, and a thick metre-long tail used for balance and warmth all equip them for cliffs and cold. They are ambush predators, using broken rock and ridgelines to stalk wild sheep and goats, supplementing larger kills with marmots, pikas, hares and game birds. Individuals range over very large territories — often hundreds of square kilometres in poor-prey areas — and communicate by scent-marking and scrapes rather than by roaring, which their anatomy does not allow.

## Snow leopards in northern Pakistan
Pakistan's northern mountains — Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and adjoining ranges — hold an important slice of the global population, with national estimates commonly cited in the low hundreds of cats. Here the central conservation challenge is human-wildlife conflict. When a snow leopard enters a corral and kills sheep, goats or yaks, the loss can be financially devastating for a herding family, and the cat is sometimes killed in return. Effective responses pair predator-proof corrals, livestock insurance or compensation schemes, and community-based monitoring so that a living snow leopard becomes worth more to a valley than a dead one. This coexistence-first model is where local rescue and conservation partners do their most important work.

## What rescue and protection involve
For a wide-ranging, low-density cat, real protection rarely looks like a cage. It looks like keeping wild prey abundant, securing livestock so conflict never starts, responding when an animal is injured or trapped, and intervening against the trade in skins and bones. Rescue partners train and equip herding communities, build predator-proof enclosures, run compensation funds that defuse the impulse to retaliate, and support rangers who monitor remote valleys. Because the snow leopard crosses national borders along the world's highest mountains, durable gains depend on local teams on the ground backed by sustained funding and cross-border cooperation.

## Snow leopard vs common leopard: how to tell them apart
| Feature | Snow leopard (Panthera uncia) | Common leopard (Panthera pardus) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Coat | Pale smoke-grey to whitish with large open rosettes | Golden-buff with smaller, tighter rosettes |
| Habitat | High mountains, 3,000 m and above | Forests, savanna, scrub from lowlands upward |
| Tail | Very long and thick for balance and warmth | Long but proportionally shorter and slimmer |
| Roar | Cannot roar | Can roar |
| IUCN status | Vulnerable | Vulnerable (varies by subspecies) |
| Range overlap with Pakistan | Northern high mountains | Lower hills and forests |

## What WARN does
WARN CIC is a registered global not-for-profit animal welfare organisation that funds local partner shelters, sanctuaries and rescue teams in its five focus countries: Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil and Colombia. Pakistan is one of the snow leopard's twelve range nations, so this species sits squarely within WARN's funded focus: supporting Pakistan-based partners who tackle human-wildlife conflict, build predator-proof corrals, run livestock-compensation schemes and respond to injured or stranded cats in the northern mountains. The snow leopard's full range stretches across Central Asia beyond WARN's countries, so outside Pakistan WARN's contribution is education and awareness rather than direct funding — we are honest that our on-the-ground money follows our partners, and for snow leopards that means the high valleys of northern Pakistan.

In northern Pakistan a single snow leopard can be killed in retaliation for one night's lost livestock. Your gift helps WARN fund the Pakistani partner teams building predator-proof corrals and compensation schemes that let mountain communities and snow leopards survive side by side.

## Frequently asked questions: Snow Leopard
### How long do snow leopards live?
In the wild snow leopards typically live around 10–12 years, and sometimes longer; in captivity they can reach roughly 20 years or more.

### What do snow leopards eat?
They are carnivores that mainly hunt wild mountain sheep and goats such as blue sheep, ibex, markhor and argali, plus smaller prey like marmots, pikas, hares and game birds. Where wild prey is scarce they may take domestic livestock.

### How big is a snow leopard?
Adults weigh roughly 25–55 kg (about 55–120 lb), with a head-and-body length of around 90–120 cm and a tail nearly as long again at 80–100 cm — making the tail one of the longest, relative to body size, of any cat.

### Are snow leopards dangerous to humans?
No. Snow leopards are shy and elusive, and there are no reliable records of them preying on people. Conflict with humans is almost always about livestock losses, not attacks on people.

### How many snow leopards are left?
The IUCN estimates roughly 7,400–8,000 snow leopards in the wild, of which about 2,710–3,386 are mature breeding adults. These figures are uncertain because so little of the species' range has been reliably surveyed.

### What is a baby snow leopard called?
A baby snow leopard is called a cub. Litters usually contain one to three cubs after a gestation of about 90–100 days, and the cubs stay with their mother through their first winter.

## Sources
- [IUCN Red List — Panthera uncia (Snow Leopard), taxon 22732](https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22732/247158596)
- [IUCN Cat Specialist Group — Snow Leopard species account](https://www.catsg.org/living-species-snowleopard)
- [CITES — Snow Leopard (Appendix I)](https://cites.org/eng/gallery/species/mammal/snow_leopard.html)
- [Snow Leopard Trust — Statement on IUCN Red List status change](https://snowleopard.org/statement-iucn-red-list-status-change-snow-leopard/)
- [WWF — Snow leopard](https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/endangered_species/snow_leopard/)
- [Britannica — Snow leopard](https://www.britannica.com/animal/snow-leopard)
- [Dawn — Pakistan's snow leopards face alarming decline](https://www.dawn.com/news/1783528)

---
Full guide: https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/snow-leopard