'Endangered' snow leopards' number lower than originally believed: Study

The number of snow leopards in central Asia is much lower than between 350 to 500 as originally believed, a new study has suggested.

Most estimates of the number of snow leopards depend on counting signs, such as tracks (pugmarks), scrapes, and their droppings (scat), camera trapping, or talking to local residents.

The research analysed snow leopard scats originally collected to look at leopard diet from Shey Phoksundo National Park and Kangchanjunga Conservation Area of Nepal to substantiate their findings.

They found that only 19 of the original 71 samples were actually P. uncia and only 10 were successfully genotyped.

"In conjunction with our national and international partners we are the first team using genetics to look at conservation of snow leopards in Nepal. This method has the advantage over traditional methods - it is non-invasive and does not require us to disturb the cats in any way," a lead author Dibesh Karmacharya said.

"We have also been able to show that traditional methods of counting snow leopards overestimate the size of the population. With more (and fresher) samples) we will be able to investigate the family relationships, genetic diversity, social structure and territories of snow leopards, and better understand how to conserve this endangered animal," he added.

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