Nepal counts its snow leopards for the first time — and finds 397
In a landmark for one of the planet's most elusive cats, Nepal has produced its first national snow leopard estimate: 397, concentrated in Dolpo and Manaslu — alongside another near-perfect year against poachers.
The snow leopard is called the "ghost of the mountains" for good reason — almost no one ever sees one. So it is a genuine landmark that Nepal has, for the first time in its history, produced a national estimate of how many it has: 397. For trekkers headed into the high, wild west of the country, it is a reminder that these trails run through some of the last great strongholds of a vanishing cat.
Key facts
- Nepal's first-ever national snow leopard estimate: 397
- Highest densities in Shey Phoksundo (Dolpo) and the Manaslu Conservation Area
- Nepal has logged 774 days without a rhino poaching
- It is the country's 10th "zero-poaching" year since 2011
Counting a ghost
Estimating snow leopards is fiendishly hard — they are solitary, superbly camouflaged and live across vast, near-inaccessible terrain. Nepal's first national figure, produced with WWF and conservation partners using camera traps and genetic sampling, puts the population at 397, with the thickest concentrations in Shey Phoksundo National Park in Dolpo and the Manaslu Conservation Area. It is a number that lets Nepal, for the first time, actually track whether its snow leopards are thriving or slipping away.
A wider conservation win
The cat count sits within a remarkable run of Nepali conservation success. The country has gone 774 consecutive days without a single rhino lost to poaching, marking its tenth "zero-poaching year" since 2011 — a feat almost unheard of in global wildlife protection. Its tiger numbers, meanwhile, roughly tripled from 121 in 2009 to 355 by 2022, with a fresh national census due to report in 2026. Nepal has quietly become one of the world's great conservation comeback stories.
| Species | Figure |
|---|---|
| Snow leopards (first estimate) | 397 |
| Tigers (2022) | 355 |
| Days without rhino poaching | 774 |
| Zero-poaching years since 2011 | 10 |
What this means for you
You will almost certainly never see a snow leopard — but you can walk its kingdom. The remote treks of Dolpo (Shey Phoksundo) and the Manaslu Conservation Area cross the very landscapes with the densest snow leopard populations on earth, and your trekking fees help fund the conservation that protects them. It is travel that gives back, in the wildest country Nepal has.
Source: World Wildlife Fund; The Himalayan Times.
Cover photo: Bill Abbott via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Source: World Wildlife Fund
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