Snow leopards live high in the mountains of Central Asia, and their range covers about 2 million square kilometres in 12 countries. Estimates of how many snow leopards live in the wild run from roughly 3,900 to 6,500, and as of November 2026 no one knows the number for sure. In 2019 Snow Leopard Trust reported research finding that less than 1 percent of snow leopard habitat had been surveyed with reliable scientific methods. Camera trapping is one of the scientifically robust methods of studying how many snow leopards live in an area. Camera-trap surveys identify individual snow leopards by the spot patterns on their coats. In some surveys, the smaller the area sampled, the higher the snow leopard density it reported, especially in areas under 500 square kilometres.

In March 2021 the Snow Leopard Trust reported a preliminary estimate from a three-year survey: about 953 snow leopards in Mongolia (95 percent confidence range 806 to 1,127), with final results still to come. The survey used nearly 1,500 camera traps, recorded more than 1,300 snow leopard encounters and identified over 250 individuals. The IUCN moved the snow leopard from Endangered to Vulnerable in 2017; it had been listed as Endangered since 1986. The Snow Leopard Trust describes the 2017 change in status as a non-genuine change, because it came from a revised estimate of mature individuals and did not reflect a measurable improvement. As of November 2026, the best guess in the latest IUCN assessment was that 2,710 to 3,386 mature, or grown-up, snow leopards remain in the wild. As of November 2026, the global snow leopard population is thought to be declining, and the IUCN expects a 10% decline over the next three generations, about 22.6 years.

A study in Mongolia's South Gobi put GPS collars on 16 snow leopards between 2008 and 2014. The collars logged each cat's location about four times a day for over a year. Males had home ranges of about 80 square miles and females about 48 square miles, much larger than earlier estimates. In an area of western Nepal with plenty of prey, the average home range was 12 to 39 square kilometres. Scientists think the true size is probably 20 to 30 percent larger because of the steep ground. Snow leopards that share an area keep about 2 kilometres from the nearest other snow leopard. Availability of wild prey is the most important factor in whether an area is suitable for snow leopards.

The IUCN named habitat loss and degradation, declines in prey and competition with livestock among the main threats to snow leopards. Snow leopards have been hunted for their fur. As of November 2026, many countries have banned the import of snow leopard fur, and the IUCN Red List lists the snow leopard as Vulnerable. The snow leopard has been on Appendix I of CITES, which controls the trade in wild animals, since 1975. About 40 percent of the 170 protected areas across the snow leopard's range are smaller than the space one adult male needs. A 2012 study published in Biological Conservation found that about 30 percent of snow leopard habitat in the Himalayas may be lost as the treeline shifts upward with climate change.

Scientists now call the snow leopard Panthera uncia; it has also been called Uncia uncia and Felis uncia. Snow leopards are thought to be more closely related to the tiger than to the leopard, and they are apex predators, which means they play a key role in keeping an ecosystem diverse. The snow leopard is more inclined than other large cats to chase its prey, using agility across slopes. It also hunts by creeping up on its prey and then ambushing it, and it can take prey that is two to three times its own weight. The three most important prey animals for snow leopards are the blue sheep (also called bharal), the Asiatic ibex and the argali. Snow leopards hunt a large animal about every 8 to 10 days on average, and one blue sheep in Nepal will give one snow leopard food for a week.

A female snow leopard mates every second year, because she spends a long time raising her cubs. Snow leopards mate between January and mid-March, and a mother snow leopard is pregnant for about three months. She has her cubs in a sheltered rocky den, and she usually has two or three cubs in a litter. A cub is ready to eat solid food at two months old and begins to follow its mother and learn to hunt at three months old. Cubs leave their mother when they are 18 to 22 months old. Snow leopards are old enough to have cubs when they are about two to three years old. In the wild they are thought to live about ten to twelve years, and snow leopards in zoos have lived to be 21 or 22 years old.

Words to know

• preliminary: first, not final
• density: how crowded
• confidence: how sure
• livestock: farm animals
• mature: grown-up
• treeline: the tree limit