Nov. 6, 2023 -- China is home to over 60 percent of all snow leopards in the world, according to the recently established Qinghai-Xizang Plateau Snow Leopard Conservation Alliance.

 

About 4,500 of the world's 7,000 snow leopards live in China's Xinjiang, Xizang, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia and four other provinces and regions. The Qinghai-Xizang Plateau accounts for more than 90 percent of their total habitat in China.

 

"Model estimation shows that there are 251 snow leopards in Qinghai. The population density is one individual per 100 square kilometers," said Ma Cunxin, an engineer from the Qinghai administrative bureau of the Qilian Mountain National Park.

 

Since 2017, Qinghai has allocated over 11 million yuan (about $1.5 million) of special research funds for conserving snow leopards. The province has also established long-term cooperative relations with 22 research institutes and carried out surveys and monitoring works to understand snow leopards in the region.

 

The Qinghai-Xizang Plateau Snow Leopard Conservation Alliance was established on October 23 to integrate and optimize the strengths and resources of all parties involved in snow leopard conservation, and establish an efficient system and collaborative mechanism for the co-building, co-management and co-protection of the leopards.

 

"In the future, there will be coordinated actions, joint planning and synchronized surveys to help us acquire more scientific and objective data of the species," said Ma.