Research overview: noninvasive genetic monitoring of snow leopards

Snow leopards inhabit remote, rugged mountains where direct observation is nearly impossible, making noninvasive genetics essential for studying them. This overview surveys how scat-based DNA analysis is used to identify individual snow leopards, estimate population size and density, determine sex, and assess genetic diversity and connectivity across their range. It discusses the technical hurdles of degraded samples collected in harsh field conditions, the integration of genetic capture-recapture with camera trapping, and how these methods have improved population estimates for a species long shrouded in uncertainty. The survey shows how noninvasive genetics underpins evidence-based conservation of one of the most elusive cats.