First large-scale assessment of snow leopard population in China using existing data from multiple organizations

Abstract

Accurate population data of large carnivores is essential for their effective conservation planning, yet estimating population size is challenging due to their elusive and wide-ranging nature. China is estimated to encompass 60% of the snow leopard Panthera uncia habitat, marking it a crucial pillar for global snow leopard conservation. However, no large-scale population assessment has been conducted despite scattered survey effort accumulating rapidly in recent years. This study combined and standardized existing camera trap survey data from 12 sites collected by four organizations during 2015 ~ 2021 to estimate snow leopard population in an area of 0.36 million km2. The representativeness of existing survey was evaluated based on habitat stratification to achieve unbiased population estimation. Spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) models were applied for density estimation and the most optimal model only included habitat rank as density covariate, showing a significant positive correlation with density. An average snow leopard density of 0.90/100 km2 (0.68 ~ 1.21/100 km2) and a population size of 1,002 individuals (755 ~ 1,341) was estimated for the entire region. Two more conservative estimates of 971 and 978 individuals were generated within two defined survey regions, in which our data has higher representativity. This study presents a practical approach to synthesize existing population survey data for large-scale population assessments of individually identifiable species. The estimated number represents 11 ~ 21% of the global snow leopard population, indicating high conservation value of this region.