Research overview: drivers of snow leopard livestock depredation

A survey of the factors that lead snow leopards to kill domestic livestock, the principal source of conflict that drives retaliatory killing of this endangered cat. Depredation rises where wild prey such as ibex and blue sheep is depleted, where livestock graze in snow leopard habitat with poor guarding, and where corrals are vulnerable to surplus-killing events inside enclosures. This overview synthesizes evidence on prey availability, husbandry, terrain and seasonality as predictors of depredation, and the mitigation toolkit including predator-proof corrals, insurance schemes and wild-prey recovery. It connects predation ecology to the socioeconomics of mountain herding communities. The topic is central to snow leopard conservation, since reducing depredation and the retaliation it provokes is essential to the species' survival.