Research overview: snow leopard pelt and bone trafficking

Snow leopards are killed and traded for their thick pelts and their bones, the latter increasingly drawn into the same markets that consume tiger and lion bone. This overview surveys research on snow leopard trafficking, which is difficult to monitor given the remoteness of the species' range and the scattered nature of the trade. Studies combine seizure records, market surveys, and assessments of how much killing is driven by trade versus retaliation for livestock losses, since retaliatory kills can also feed the trade opportunistically. Researchers examine trafficking routes across Central Asia and into Chinese markets. The overview frames the snow leopard trade as a serious but poorly quantified threat layered atop conflict-driven killing, complicating efforts to separate the two. It matters because reducing trade requires both curbing demand for high-mountain cat products and addressing the livestock conflicts that supply animals into trafficking networks.