Mongolia is home to around 1,000 snow leopards — over 10% of the global population. How we are helping keep them invisible.
Nyamsuren E.
The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is the most elusive big cat on the planet. Mongolia's Altai range hosts around 1,000 of them, one of the largest national populations in the world. Most trekkers who spend a week in snow leopard habitat will never see one. They see tracks. They hear stories. That is as it should be.
Retaliatory killing when leopards take livestock is the leading cause of death. In herder communities that lose a horse worth $800 or a yak worth $1,200 to a snow leopard, the economic impact is severe. Without a livestock insurance programme, the response is predictable.
We partner with the Snow Leopard Trust Mongolia. 5% of profits from our Altai expeditions go to their herder insurance programme. When a leopard takes a verified animal, the herder receives 80% compensation — funded by our guests, sustained by our commitment. Retaliation drops. Leopards survive. Tracks continue.
You will likely not see a snow leopard. You will see scat. You will see scratch posts on rock faces. You will see prey — ibex, argali sheep. You will hear from a shepherd who lost a yak last winter and was compensated within 40 days.
We do not count leopard sightings as success. We count leopard survival as success. In the Jargalant Khairkhan range where we focus, camera traps show 14 individual leopards in 2023 versus 9 in 2018. The population is recovering.