Research overview: camera-trap surveys of snow leopards along ridgelines

Camera trapping has become the primary method for studying snow leopards, exploiting their habit of traveling and marking along ridgelines. This overview synthesizes how researchers place cameras at scrape sites, valley crossings, and topographic funnels to photograph individually patterned cats for capture-recapture density estimation. It reviews how survey design must account for the species' huge ranges and low density, how spatially explicit models handle movement across survey areas, and how camera data also reveal activity patterns and prey. The synthesis explains why ridgeline-focused camera placement is so effective for a cat that follows predictable travel routes. For enthusiasts it demystifies how the elusive snow leopard is monitored, why knowing the cat's movement and marking behavior is essential to catching it on camera, and how these surveys produce the density estimates that underpin conservation assessments in remote mountains.