Bhutan has confirmed a 39.5% increase in its snow leopard population, marking one of the most encouraging wildlife conservation results in recent memory. A new national survey counted 134 individual snow leopards across the country’s mountain landscapes — up from 96 recorded in the previous survey. For a species listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, this jump is a meaningful sign that protection efforts are working.
At a glance
- Snow leopard population: Bhutan’s 2024 national survey confirmed 134 individual snow leopards — a 39.5% increase over the previous count of 96.
- Camera trap survey: Researchers deployed camera traps across high-altitude terrain throughout Bhutan, using photographic identification of unique coat patterns to distinguish individual animals.
- Protected areas: Bhutan’s network of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, which covers more than 51% of the country’s total land area, is widely credited with supporting the population’s recovery.
Why this matters for a vulnerable species
Snow leopards (Panthera uncia) range across 12 countries in Central and South Asia, from the mountains of Afghanistan to the highlands of Mongolia. Fewer than 8,000 are thought to survive in the wild. Their habitat is shrinking under pressure from climate change, which is pushing the treeline upward and compressing the alpine zones where the cats hunt. They also face threats from poaching and retaliatory killings by herders who lose livestock to predation.
Bhutan is a small country, but it holds an outsized role in snow leopard conservation. The Himalayas here are vast and relatively undisturbed. The government has long treated environmental protection as a constitutional obligation — Bhutan’s constitution requires that at least 60% of the country remain under forest cover in perpetuity. That legal commitment has helped create the conditions where wildlife like snow leopards can recover.
The World Wildlife Fund called the new survey results a “milestone achievement,” and the Bhutan government announced the findings with evident pride. Conservation groups note that verified population increases of this magnitude are rare — most news from snow leopard range countries concerns declining or stable numbers at best.
How the count was done
Snow leopards are notoriously difficult to study. They live at elevations between 9,800 and 17,000 feet, move across rugged terrain at night, and avoid humans almost completely. Direct observation is nearly impossible. Camera traps — motion-triggered cameras placed along animal trails and near prey concentrations — are the primary tool researchers use to document individuals.
Because every snow leopard has a unique pattern of spots and rosettes on its coat, researchers can identify individuals from photographs, much the way fingerprints identify people. Bhutan’s survey team placed cameras across the country’s protected areas and collated thousands of images to produce the final count of 134 animals.
The methodology has become standard in snow leopard research and is used by the Snow Leopard Trust and partner organizations across Central Asia. Bhutan worked in collaboration with WWF and government wildlife authorities to design and execute the survey.
Conservation in context
Bhutan’s result arrives as other snow leopard range countries are also investing in better monitoring. WWF’s snow leopard program operates across multiple countries, supporting camera trap surveys, anti-poaching patrols, and community livestock insurance programs that reduce the financial incentive for herders to kill cats that prey on their animals. In Nepal, India, and Mongolia, similar community-based approaches have shown promise.
Still, the broader picture for the species remains uncertain. Climate models project that suitable snow leopard habitat across the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region could shrink by as much as 30% by the end of the century if warming continues on its current trajectory, according to research published in Biological Conservation. The Bhutan numbers are encouraging, but they represent one country among 12, and range-wide population trends remain difficult to assess with precision.
There are also open questions about what drives variation between surveys. Some of the increase Bhutan recorded may reflect improved survey methods and camera coverage rather than a true increase in the number of living animals. Researchers are careful to note this possibility, even as they celebrate the result.
What Bhutan’s model offers the world
Few countries have built environmental protection as deeply into their governance as Bhutan has. The constitutional forest cover requirement is one piece of a broader framework that includes a network of biological corridors connecting protected areas, allowing wildlife to move between parks without crossing unprotected land. Snow leopards are wide-ranging animals — a single individual may cover hundreds of square miles in a year — so connectivity between habitats is essential to population health.
Bhutan has also pursued low-impact economic development, partly as a matter of policy and partly as a matter of geography. Tourism is regulated and capped. Agriculture in high-altitude areas remains largely traditional. These factors combine to keep human pressure on mountain ecosystems relatively low compared with neighboring countries.
The IUCN Red List still classifies the snow leopard as vulnerable, meaning the species faces a high risk of extinction in the wild. But Bhutan’s survey results show that where the political will and the protected land exist, populations can recover. That is not a small thing. For a cat that has spent decades losing ground across most of its range, 134 confirmed individuals in one country — up from 96 — is exactly the kind of data point conservationists have been waiting for.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022 C.E., set a global target of protecting 30% of land and ocean by 2030 C.E. Bhutan already far exceeds that threshold. Its snow leopard numbers suggest the target is worth hitting.
Read more
For more on this story, see: World Wildlife Fund
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Renewables now make up at least 49% of global power capacity
- Global suicide rate has fallen by 40% since 1995
- The Good News for Humankind archive on Bhutan
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