KATHMANDU– Snow leopards (Panther uncia) in Nepal have home ranges that are significantly larger than previously documented and frequently cross international borders, according to the country’s first GPS telemetry study, highlighting the need for cross-country collaborations in conserving one of the world’s most elusive species.

Data from four snow leopards fitted with GPS collars in northeastern Nepal’s Kangchenjunga Conservation Area, which tracked the animals ranging from 20 to 659 days, showed that their home range sizes were 6 to 97 times larger than the previous estimates. Three out of four snow leopards were also found to have crossed international borders five to seven times, spending about 10% to 34% of their time in neighboring India and China, with 28%–50% of their home ranges overlapping India.

The Kanchanjunga Conservation Area is bordered by Khangchendzonga National Park in Sikkim to its east and the Qomolangma National Nature Preserve in Tibet to the north — both transboundary protected areas — and researchers have long assumed the big cat’s transboundary movement considering similar habitats. The new study led by the Nepali government with support from WWF Nepal and the National Trust for Nature Conservation, validates the claims.

“We now have solid proof,” said Samundra Subba, lead author of the study and large carnivores researcher at WWF Nepal. “National borders are human constructs — snow leopards don’t recognize them. As long as there are no physical and artificial barriers like fences, and the habitat conditions are similar with relative proportion of prey availability, these big cats can move freely across the landscape.”

Nepal is home to 397 snow leopards, an estimated 7% to 8% of the global population, according to the country’s first population survey released in April 2025. While an estimated 301 to 400 snow leopards reside in three major conservation landscapes —eastern, central and western — nearly 42% of their habitat exists outside protected areas.

The new study also recorded the world’s highest elevation for a snow leopard at 5,848 meters above sea level, though the animals preferred areas between 4,000 meters and 5,000 meters, avoiding elevations below 3,500 meters and above 5,500 meters.

While the GPS telemetry study of snow leopards in Nepal, conducted between 2013 and 2017, is the first time for the country, satellite collaring in other places have shown transboundary movements of the big cat. The first-ever snow leopard tracked using satellite-based GPS technology was collared in Pakistan’s Chitra Gol National Park in 2006, where researchers found the female cat spent half her life in neighboring Afghanistan.

In Nepal, the collared female snow leopard named Lapchhemba spent between two and 37 days in China during her exploratory movements, according to the study. Another female named Yalung and a male big cat named Ghangjenjwenga crossed into India, where they spent between half to 21 days, with 49.7% and 28.2% of their home range appearing to be in India, respectively.

“Lapchhemba’s border crossings appeared primarily driven by the search for suitable habitats for establishing her home range … the territories … of Ghangjenjwenga and Yalung spanned both sides of the international boundary, indicating that their crossings were motivated by the need to cover their entire home range,” the study said.

But border crossings for snow leopards can be fraught with man-made barriers. A 2024 study noted that a dispersing snow leopard traversed nearly 10 km along the border fence between Mongolia and China before returning to her natal area after being unable to find a way across.

Charudutt Mishra, executive director of the International Snow Leopard Trust, said that border fences and other man-made barriers, particularly linear infrastructure, interfere with species ecology and can fragment populations genetically.

“What I find heartening in the results of the study in Nepal is that the collared snow leopards did not encounter any significant man-made barriers to their cross-border movement,” he said. “This is not common, as borders typically tend to be fenced.”

Subba said that snow leopard movement in eastern landscape that extends from Langtang National Park in the west to Kangchenjunga Conservation Area in the east in Nepal may need to cross through Chinese territory. For instance, the movement of one of the collared snow leopards showed that its journey from Kangchenjunga Conservation Area to Makalu Barun National Park passed through the Qomolangma National Nature Preserve to avoid the over 5,000-meter-deep Arun gorge situated at around 3,500 meters above sea level. This also acts as a natural barrier for snow leopards.

“The movements are to find a suitable new home range,” he said. “The snow leopard (Lapchhemba) did to and fro from Nepal to China for about five times, and after approximately eight months, she found a suitable habitat in Sankhuwasabha district in Tokpegola and Thudam, just in between the Kangchenjunga and Makalu Barun habitat.”

Li Xeyang, scientific consultant at the Chinese non-governmental organization Shan Shui Conservation Center, which focuses on endangered species like snow leopards, said such natural border crossings enable vital genetic exchange between regions, allow young snow leopards to settle in new habitats, and maintain a stable and healthy snow leopard population. She added that natural transboundary movements “are essential for maintaining healthy gene flow and population resilience.”

Since Nepal’s border regions already have protected areas, Li suggested formally linking such reserves and adopting standardized monitoring protocols could help generate comparable data across countries. This would help in identifying the critical habitat and corridor for snow leopards to design targeted actions.

“The snow leopard’s transboundary movements make it an ideal flagship species to promote cross-border conservation and research collaboration,” Li said. “By treating snow leopard conservation as a shared scientific and diplomatic endeavor, range countries can turn political borders into ecological bridges —ensuring the species’ survival while setting a precedent for transboundary wildlife management.”

Such cross-country collaborations are already in place for snow leopard conservation. The Global Snow Leopard & Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP) is one of the crucial alliances of 12 snow leopard alliance countries — including India, China and Nepal — serving as a model for cooperative conservation, though experts are calling for more cross-collaborations and sustainable funding mechanisms.

Locally, in Nepal, the Snow Leopard Conservation Action Plan 2024-2030 aims to promote and enhance transboundary collaborations, with the country holding high-level meetings with India and China to “understand and resolve” common conservation issues. However, it notes that holding such meetings regularly and following up on progress and compliance of decisions remain a challenge.

The new action plan also prioritizes community engagement and conflict mitigation in conserving snow leopards, as killing of livestock in mountain regions have led to retaliatory killing of the big cats. Experts suggest that cross-country community-based conservation programs and Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) outside protected areas could further help in reducing risks of human-wildlife conflict.

“Snow leopards have lived in those mountains long before any country existed, and long before humans colonized these high mountains,” Mishra said. “It’s therefore natural that, left to themselves, many snow leopards would be crossing international borders during their normal course of movement. I don’t believe that high altitude poses achallenge to snow leopards. Humans and their actions do.”

Banner image:A snow leopard fitted with a GPS collar photographed in Nepal. Image courtesy of DNPWC/ WWF.

Nepal announces its snow leopard population after first-of-its-kind assessment

Citation:

Subba, S. A., Acharya, H. R., Shrestha, S., Koirala, S., Shrestha, R., Thapa, G. J., … Thapa, K. (2025). Lessons for transboundary snow leopard conservation: Findings from a GPS telemetry study in Kangchenjunga Conservation Area, Nepal. Integrative Conservation, 4(1), 45–56. doi:10.1002/inc3.70008