Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Snow leop­ards in­habit a large ge­o­graphic range of ap­prox­i­mately 2.3 mil­lion square kilo­me­ters and are widely but spo­rad­i­cally dis­trib­uted through­out the high moun­tain ranges of Cen­tral Asia. This in­cludes the en­tire Hi­malayan moun­tain sys­tem, as well as areas in Bhutan, Nepal and the Siber­ian re­gion of Rus­sia. Snow leop­ards are found any­where from the Hi­malayas to south­ern and west­ern Mon­go­lia and South Rus­sia, how­ever 60% of the range oc­curs in China, par­tic­u­larly in the Xin­jiang and Tibet au­tonomous re­gions, as well as in the Sichuan, Qing­hai and Gansu provinces. (Fox, 1994; Hus­sain, 2003; Schaller, et al., 1988)

• Biogeographic Regions
• palearctic
  • native
• oriental
  • native

Habi­tat

Steep, rocky and bro­ken ter­rain are the pre­ferred bed­ding areas for snow leop­ards, specif­i­cally on or nearby to a land­form edge close to nat­ural veg­e­ta­tion. Cliffs and major ridge­lines are pre­ferred for day­time rest­ing. Snow leop­ards live in alpine and sub­alpine zones from el­e­va­tions of 900 to 5,500 me­ters or higher, but gen­er­ally at al­ti­tudes be­tween 3,000 and 4,500 me­ters. In the win­ter they may mi­grate to lower el­e­va­tions of 900 me­ters, fol­low­ing their pre­ferred prey. Snow leop­ards gen­er­ally avoid dense for­est cover and cul­ti­vated fields, but are as­so­ci­ated with open conif­er­ous for­est, as well as arid and semi-arid shrub­land, grass­land, alpine mead­ows and bar­ren habi­tats. (Jack­son, 1996; Lo­vari, et al., 2013; Schaller, et al., 1994)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• forest
• mountains

• Range elevation

  900 to 5,500 m

  2952.76 to ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Mea­sur­ing from nose to tail, the length of an av­er­age adult snow leop­ard is 1000 to 1300 mm, with a tail length of 800 to 1000 mm equal­ing roughly 75% to 90% of total body length. This ex­tremely long tail is used specif­i­cally for bal­ance in the steep and rocky ter­rain they in­habit, but can also be used to cover their ex­trem­i­ties dur­ing harsh win­ter weather. In gen­eral, the av­er­age mass for an adult is 35 to 45 kg with a total range of 25 to 75 kg across the species. There is no pro­nounced sex­ual di­mor­phism in the species, how­ever males may be slightly larger than fe­males in gen­eral. A char­ac­ter­is­tic of snow leop­ards is the ex­tremely large size of their paws in com­par­i­son to other fe­lids, which are an adap­ta­tion for walk­ing on snow. The front paws are slightly larger than the hind paws, with an av­er­age foot­pad size of 90 to 100 mm in length and 70 to 80 mm in width. Snow leop­ards also have rel­a­tively long hind legs that are adapted for in­creased agility and jump­ing abil­ity in their rugged habi­tat. (Hem­mer, 1972; Jack­son, 1996; Rieger, 1984)

The base fur color can range any­where from light gray to smoke gray to cream-yel­low, with a white tint gen­er­ally found on the un­der­body. The en­tire body is cov­ered with grey­ish black spots and rosettes. Rosettes are larger rings en­cir­cling smaller spots and are only found on the body and tail, whereas the solid spots are found on the head, neck and lower limbs. Ju­ve­nile snow leop­ards have lon­gi­tu­di­nal black stripes across the mid­dle of their back ex­tend­ing from the base of their head to their tail. As they grow and ma­ture, these stripes break up into large spots form­ing two lat­eral rows of elon­gated rings along the cen­ter of the back. (Fox, 1989; Hem­mer, 1972)

Snow leop­ards have long and thick coats that molt twice per year, yield­ing a longer and thicker coat dur­ing the win­ter. In the sum­mer, fur length is roughly 25 mm on the sides of the snow leop­ard, and roughly 50 mm on the belly and tail. In win­ter, fur on the sides is roughly 50 mm, 30 to 55 mm on the back, 60 mm on the tail, and up to 120 mm on the belly. In ad­di­tion to thick fur, they have small rounded ears that help to min­i­mize heat loss in their cold, moun­tain­ous en­vi­ron­ments. In com­par­i­son to other closely re­lated fe­lids, snow leop­ards have much larger nasal cav­i­ties, as well as smaller and broader heads rel­a­tive to their body size. (Hem­mer, 1972)

Dis­tin­guish­able skull fea­tures from other large fe­lids are: an over­all short­ness of the skull, an el­e­va­tion of the frontal area, more rounded or­bits, longer pos­tor­bital and zy­go­matic processes, longer and smaller in­fra­or­bital fora­man, wider mesoptery­goid fossa, flat­ter os­seous bul­lae, and a marked short­ness of palate. In males, the mean an­tero­pos­te­rior width of the upper ca­nine at alve­o­lus is slightly larger than in the fe­males. How­ever, the mean lat­ero­me­dial width across pos­tor­bital con­stric­tion and across brain­case is slightly larger in fe­males. (Chris­tiansen and Har­ris, 2012; Ognev, 1935)

The den­tal for­mula of adult snow leop­ards is I 3/3, C 1/1, P 3/2, M 1/1. (Marma and Yun­chis, 1968; Pocock, 1916)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike
• male larger

• Range mass

  25 to 75 kg

  55.07 to 165.20 lb

• Range length

  1000 to 1300 mm

  39.37 to 51.18 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Snow leop­ards are soli­tary and do not as­so­ci­ate with mates un­less it is mat­ing sea­son. Due to the long time spent rear­ing cubs, snow leop­ard fe­males mate every sec­ond year. They are polyg­y­nous in the wild, but some snow leop­ards in cap­tiv­ity are known to have be­come monog­a­mous. (Free­man, 1982)

• Mating System
• polygynous

Breed­ing in wild snow leop­ards is strongly sea­sonal, oc­cur­ring dur­ing late win­ter from Jan­u­ary to March. When fe­males are in es­trus, they make a con­tin­u­ous yowl­ing sound that is re­quired to at­tract males. There is also a sig­nif­i­cant in­crease in al­logroom­ing and prusten (chuff­ing) by the fe­male dur­ing this pe­riod. The fe­male pre­sents her­self to the male by rais­ing her tail and walk­ing in front of him, en­sur­ing her anal re­gion is clearly vis­i­ble. Cop­u­la­tion of snow leop­ards oc­curs in both ven­tral/dor­sal and dor­sal/dor­sal pos­tures, and the male gen­er­ally grips the fur on the fe­male’s neck as he is mount­ing her. Ges­ta­tion pe­riod is roughly 90 to 105 days, and the cubs are born some­time be­tween April and June. Gen­er­ally the lit­ter con­sists of 2 to 3 cubs, but in rare cases can range any­where from 1 to 5. They are born in a rocky shel­ter, where the mother makes a warm nest of fur from her un­der­belly. At birth, snow leop­ard cubs weigh 300 to 600g. (Blomqvist and Sten, 1982; Fox, 1989; Free­man, 1983; Hem­mer, 1972; Jack­son and Ahlborn, 1988)

Lac­ta­tion is five-months how­ever the young can begin to eat solid food at two months of age, and are weaned at about 5 months. For roughly the first year of life, snow leop­ards are de­pen­dent upon their mother. Fe­male snow leop­ards reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity at about 2 to 3 years of age while males may take up to 4 years. (Fox, 1989; Pet­zsch, 1968)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• induced ovulation
• fertilization
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  Snow leopard females breed every second year.

• Breeding season

  Snow leopards breed from January to March.

• Range number of offspring

  1 to 5

• Average number of offspring

  2

  AnAge

• Range gestation period

  90 to 105 days

• Average weaning age

  5 months

• Average time to independence

  1 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  2 to 3 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  3 to 4 years

Snow leop­ards are soli­tary and the only pro­longed so­cial con­tact oc­curs while fe­males are rais­ing their cubs. The cubs are al­tri­cial when born, do not open their eyes until they are about one week of age, and are en­tirely de­pen­dent on their mother for the first year of their life. (Fox, 1989; Jack­son and Ahlborn, 1989)

Re­pro­duc­tive suc­cess is higher in areas where fe­males can find se­cluded den­ning as well as a large abun­dance and avail­abil­ity of prey nearby. It is im­per­a­tive for the safety of their young that these den­ning sites are in­ac­ces­si­ble and se­cure so they can hide their cubs from other car­ni­vores while the mother searches for food. At about three months of age, the cubs begin to fol­low their mother in order to learn basic sur­vival skills such as hunt­ing. The mother is solely re­spon­si­ble for sup­ply­ing the cubs with food, pro­tec­tion, re­sources and learn­ing for their first year of life. (Jack­son, 1996)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• female parental care
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• extended period of juvenile learning

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Snow leop­ards are ex­tremely reclu­sive which has made it very dif­fi­cult to ac­cu­rately de­ter­mine the av­er­age lifes­pan for the species in the wild. In cap­tiv­ity snow leop­ards have lived to 21 years of age. (Whar­ton and Free­man, 1988)

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  21 (high) years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  18.0 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Be­hav­ior

Snow leop­ards are pri­mar­ily cre­pus­cu­lar, mean­ing that they are most ac­tive dur­ing dawn and dusk. They are also highly mo­bile and move from one lo­ca­tion to an­other on a daily basis and shift their bed­ding site mul­ti­ple times dur­ing a day. Gen­er­ally, snow leop­ards re­main in one spe­cific area of their home range for sev­eral weeks be­fore re­lo­cat­ing to an­other part of their home range. (Jack­son and Ahlborn, 1988)

Snow leop­ards are soli­tary but pair dur­ing mat­ing sea­son as well as share each other’s home ranges. Snow leop­ards that share a home range main­tain a dis­tance of roughly 2 kilo­me­ters from the near­est other in­di­vid­ual. They ac­tively avoid one an­other by mark­ing travel lanes with scrapes, feces and pun­gent scent sprays, which dis­closes de­tails about the sex and re­pro­duc­tive sta­tus of in­di­vid­u­als. Snow leop­ard males are in­tol­er­ant of con­spe­cific males, sug­gest­ing that they are ter­ri­to­r­ial. (Jack­son and Ahlborn, 1988; Jack­son, 1996; Lo­vari, et al., 2013)

Due to their large paws and elon­gated hind legs, the abil­ity of snow leop­ards to jump is highly de­vel­oped, as well as their abil­ity to climb. They pre­fer to rest upon el­e­vated struc­tures, es­pe­cially when they are kept in cap­tiv­ity. The rar­ity of sight­ings of snow leop­ards in the wild sug­gests that they re­duce their ac­tiv­ity around areas where hu­mans are pre­sent. (Hem­mer, 1972; Wolf and Ale, 2009)

The pre­ferred method of hunt­ing is to stalk and then am­bush their prey from above, using rocky ter­rain and shrubby veg­e­ta­tion to con­ceal them­selves. (Jack­son, 1996)

• Key Behaviors
• cursorial
• terricolous
• crepuscular
• motile
• nomadic
• solitary

Home Range

In west­ern Nepal, in an area of high prey den­sity, the av­er­age home range size for a snow leop­ard is 12 to 39 square kilo­me­ters. How­ever with the large amount of topo­graphic re­lief, the ac­tual home range size is prob­a­bly 20 to 30% larger. (Jack­son and Ahlborn, 1988)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Un­like other large fe­lids, snow leop­ards do not roar. In­stead, they emit a high-pitched yowl, es­pe­cially when fe­males are in heat. This call al­lows fe­males to alert males of their where­abouts and usu­ally oc­curs in the late evening. An­other vo­cal­iza­tion is a nonag­gres­sive “chuff­ing” that is emit­ted through the nos­trils. The ar­rival of one snow leop­ard in the im­me­di­ate prox­im­ity of an­other elic­its this chuff­ing sound, and could be de­scribed as their means of greet­ing. (Hem­mer, 1972; Jack­son and Ahlborn, 1988)

Snow leop­ards emit high pitched yowl­ing sounds to com­mu­ni­cate and ad­ver­tise their lo­ca­tion. Their long tail is also used in a num­ber of com­mu­ni­ca­tion func­tions and can in­di­cate their cur­rent mood to other in­di­vid­u­als. Snow leop­ards also use tac­tile means to com­mu­ni­cate and will rub their heads and necks against a so­cial part­ner to in­di­cate that they are being am­i­ca­ble. (Hem­mer, 1972; Rieger, 1984)

An­other way snow leop­ards com­mu­ni­cate is via fa­cial ex­pres­sions. For ex­am­ple, when they are being de­fen­sive they open their mandible quite wide and raise their lips to bare the ca­nine teeth, how­ever when they are ex­cited the mouth opens as well but the ca­nines do not show and the lips and nose wrin­kle de­pend­ing on in­ten­sity. (Hem­mer, 1972)

Snow leop­ards also com­mu­ni­cate using scents and other chem­i­cals. The mark­ing be­hav­ior of snow leop­ards is fairly ex­ten­sive and in­cludes every­thing from scrap­ing, spray­ing urine, head rub­bing and even claw rak­ing along the trunks of trees. Mark­ing oc­curs more fre­quently dur­ing breed­ing sea­son. They mark spe­cific trees or sur­faces in travel lanes to en­sure that an­other snow leop­ard does not ven­ture into their home area. (Jack­son and Ahlborn, 1988)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• scent marks

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Snow leop­ards are car­niv­o­rous and ac­tively hunt their prey. They are also op­por­tunis­tic preda­tors and will take any kind of meat and prey to en­sure that they meet their over­all en­ergy re­quire­ments. They are ca­pa­ble of killing an­i­mals more than three to four times their own weight but also read­ily set­tle for much smaller prey in times of need. (Jack­son and Ahlborn, 1988)

The pri­mary prey species of snow leop­ards are blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur). Other prey species in­clude ibex (Capra ibex sib­rica), mark­hors (Capra fail­coneri), ar­gali sheep (Ovis ammon), uri­als (Ovis ori­en­talis), Hi­malayan tahr (Hemi­tra­gus jem­lahi­cus), serows (Capri­cor­nis suma­traen­sis), gorals (Nae­morhae­dus goral), musk deer (Moschus chryso­gaster), wild boars (Sus scrofa), Ti­betan an­te­lope (Pan­tholops hodg­sonf), Ti­betan gazelles (Pro­capra pic­ti­cau­data), goi­tered gazelles (Gazella subgut­tur­osa), wild don­keys (Equus hemionus), and wild yaks (Bos grun­ni­nus). Smaller prey in­clude mar­mots (Mar­mota), hares (Lepus), pikas (Ochotona), voles (Mi­cro­tus), mice and birds. (Chun­dawat, 1990; Fox, 1989)

Due to over-hunt­ing by hu­mans the pop­u­la­tion of wild un­gu­lates in cer­tain areas has been de­pleted and snow leop­ards have turned to prey upon do­mes­tic live­stock. (Anwar, et al., 2011)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • eats terrestrial vertebrates

• Animal Foods
• birds
• mammals

Pre­da­tion

Snow leop­ards are top preda­tors, they have few nat­ural preda­tors other than hu­mans. How­ever, in­ter­spe­cific killing be­tween leop­ards (Pan­thera par­dus) and snow leop­ards can occur when com­pe­ti­tion for re­sources be­tween these sym­patric car­ni­vores in­creases. Adult snow leop­ards are also po­ten­tial preda­tors of younger cubs. (Lo­vari, et al., 2013)

• Known Predators

  • humans (Homo sapiens)
  • leopards (Panthera pardus)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Snow leop­ards are apex preda­tors, mean­ing they play a key role in main­tain­ing the bio­di­ver­sity in an ecosys­tem. Through pop­u­la­tion dy­nam­ics and trophic cas­cades, snow leop­ards are an im­por­tant in­di­ca­tor of the health of the en­vi­ron­ment and help reg­u­late the pop­u­la­tions of species lower on the food chain. (She­hzad, et al., 2012)

Snow leop­ards can also be rec­og­nized as an in­di­ca­tor or flag­ship species, and this is im­por­tant be­cause they can help mo­ti­vate the gen­eral pub­lic to sup­port the con­ser­va­tion of high-al­ti­tude ecosys­tems. If snow leop­ard habi­tats are pro­tected, the habi­tats for many other species be­come pro­tected as well. Top preda­tors pro­mote and are as­so­ci­ated with species rich­ness through re­source fa­cil­i­ta­tion, trophic cas­cades, ecosys­tem pro­duc­tiv­ity, sen­si­tiv­ity to dys­func­tions, and more. There­fore, to help main­tain bio­di­ver­sity, preda­tor-cen­tered con­ser­va­tion is key. (Jack­son, 1996; Lo­vari, et al., 2009; Ser­gio, et al., 2008)

Snow leop­ard par­a­sites in­clude: Diro­fi­laria im­mi­tis, Tox­as­caris leon­ina, No­toe­dres cati, Tox­o­plasma gondii, Trichuris species, As­caris species, Coc­cidia species, fleas, mites, strongyles, lung­worms, De­modex species and sar­cop­tid mites, Gi­a­r­dia, and hook­worms. (Ger­aghty, et al., 1981; Hill, et al., 2008; Mu­rata, et al., 2003; Ruedi, et al., 1978; Whar­ton and Mainka, 1997)

• Ecosystem Impact
• keystone species

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Live snow leop­ards are of eco­nomic im­por­tance to zoos. They are dis­played to the pub­lic for en­ter­tain­ment and re­search and bring in many tourists. The fact that snow leop­ards in the wild are ex­tremely reclu­sive and dif­fi­cult to find makes this even more im­por­tant. (Macri and Pat­ter­son-Kane, 2011)

• Positive Impacts
• body parts are source of valuable material
• ecotourism
• research and education
• controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Due to their shy and elu­sive be­hav­ior, snow leop­ards gen­er­ally avoid hu­mans and are not known to have ever at­tacked a human in the wild. The only major neg­a­tive im­pact of snow leop­ards on hu­mans is their pre­da­tion upon do­mes­tic live­stock. (Hus­sain, 2003)

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Snow leop­ards are listed as an en­dan­gered species on the IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species. The global pop­u­la­tion of snow leop­ards is es­ti­mated to be any­where be­tween 4,080 to 6,590 in­di­vid­u­als. In the past two decades, pop­u­la­tions of snow leop­ards are sus­pected to have de­clined by at least 20% due to habi­tat loss, prey loss, poach­ing and per­se­cu­tion. The main fac­tor af­fect­ing the pop­u­la­tion de­cline of the snow leop­ard is human ac­tiv­ity. Whether the cats are im­pacted di­rectly by poach­ing for fur, bones and other body parts, they are also being af­fected in­di­rectly by base prey loss due to human over­hunt­ing. Snow leop­ard pelts ap­pear to be the main prod­uct de­mand for poach­ers, but re­cently their bones have be­come a pop­u­lar sub­sti­tute for tiger bones in Chi­nese med­i­cine. Many farm­ers are also re­spon­si­ble for il­le­gally killing snow leop­ards as a re­sponse to pre­da­tion upon their live­stock. (Jack­son and Ahlborn, 1984; Jack­son, et al., 2008; Lo­vari, et al., 2009)

Through habi­tat shifts, loss, and frag­men­ta­tion, cli­mate change is now emerg­ing as an­other threat to this space-re­quir­ing species. Ac­cord­ing to the In­ter­gov­ern­men­tal Panel on Cli­mate Change (IPCC), the av­er­age an­nual tem­per­a­ture in South Asia and Tibet will in­crease by 3 to 4 de­grees Cel­sius by 2080 to 2099, along with an an­nual in­crease in pre­cip­i­ta­tion. Due to these warmer and wet­ter con­di­tions, the for­est tree­line is ex­pected to as­cend into alpine areas, which is the snow leop­ards pre­ferred habi­tat. Re­sults in­di­cate that roughly 30% of their habi­tat in the Hi­malaya may be lost be­cause of this shift­ing tree­line. This will cause over­lap in species range, where the snow leop­ard will then have to con­tend for re­sources with species bet­ter adapted to for­est habi­tats such as leop­ards (Pan­thera par­dus), wild dogs (Cuon alpi­nus) and, in Bhutan, tigers (Pan­thera tigris). (Chris­tensen, et al., 2007; For­rest, et al., 2012)

An­thro­pogenic threats to snow leop­ards may also in­ten­sify through cli­mate change. With shrink­ing and frag­mented alpine habi­tat, snow leop­ard prey species are being dis­placed and caus­ing snow leop­ards to in­crease pre­da­tion upon live­stock. This re­sults in in­creased re­tal­ia­tory killing by local farm­ers, plac­ing snow leop­ards at great risk. (For­rest, et al., 2012)

There is a gen­eral lack of aware­ness across the globe on the im­por­tance of this species to its ecosys­tem. The Snow Leop­ard Net­work has de­vel­oped a plan unit­ing in­di­vid­u­als and or­ga­ni­za­tions such as the Snow Leop­ard Con­ser­vancy and the In­ter­na­tional Snow Leop­ard Trust to try and ed­u­cate the pub­lic on the im­por­tance of con­ser­va­tion of snow leop­ards. (Jack­son, et al., 2008)

• IUCN Red List

  Endangered
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Endangered
  More information

• US Federal List

  Endangered

• CITES

  Appendix I

Other Com­ments

There are two other sci­en­tific names that have been used for snow leop­ards: Felis uncia and Pan­thera uncia. (Jack­son, et al., 2008)

Con­trib­u­tors

Leah Mont­sion (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Man­i­toba, Jane Wa­ter­man (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Man­i­toba, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Anwar, M., R. Jack­son, M. Nadeem, J. Ja­necka, S. Hus­sain, M. Beg, G. Muham­mad, M. Qayyum. 2011. Food habits of the snow leop­ard Pan­thera uncia (Schre­ber, 1775) in Baltistan, North­ern Pak­istan. Eu­ro­pean Jour­nal of Wildlife Re­search, 57(5): 1077-1083.

Blomqvist, L., I. Sten. 1982. Re­pro­duc­tive bi­ol­ogy of the snow leop­ard, Pan­thera uncia. Int. Ped. Book of Snow Leop­ards, 3: 71-79.

Chris­tensen, J., B. He­wit­son, A. Busuioc, A. Chen X Gao, I. Held, R. Jones, R. Kolli, W. Kwon, R. Laprise, V. Ma­g­ana Rueda, L. Mearns, C. Menen­dez, J. Raisa­nen, A. Rinke, A. Sarr, P. Whet­ton. 2007. Re­gional Cli­mate Pro­jec­tions. Cli­mate Change, 2007: The Phys­i­cal Sci­ence Basis. Con­tri­bu­tion of Work­ing group I to the Fourth As­sess­ment Re­port of the In­ter­gov­ern­men­tal Panel on Cli­mate Change, Uni­ver­sity Press, Cam­bridge, Chap­ter 11, 4: 847-940.

Chris­tiansen, P., J. Har­ris. 2012. Vari­a­tion in cran­iomandibu­lar mor­phol­ogy and sex­ual di­mor­phism in Pan­ther­ines and the saber­cat Smilodon fa­talis. PLoS One, 7(10): e48352.

Chun­dawat, R. 1990. Habi­tat se­lec­tion by a snow leop­ard in Hemis Na­tional Park, India. Int.​Ped.​Book of Snow leop­ards, 6: 85-92.

For­rest, J., E. Wikra­manayake, R. Shrestha, G. Areen­dran, K. Gyelt­shen, A. Ma­hesh­wari, S. Mazum­dar, R. Naidoo, G. Thapa, K. Thapa. 2012. Con­ser­va­tion and cli­mate change: as­sess­ing the vul­ner­a­bil­ity of snow leop­ard habi­tat to tree­line shift in the Hi­malaya. Bi­o­log­i­cal Con­ser­va­tion, 150(1): 129-135.

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