Eastern Himalayas Stories

Nepal has announced its national estimate of the elusive snow leopard population, marking a major milestone in the conservation of this iconic Himalayan species. This landmark assessment, which compiled data from seven study regions, estimates Nepal’s snow leopard population at 397 individuals, a relatively stable population for the region. It’s the first robust estimate of the country’s snow leopard population, which until now, were only guestimates based on sign surveys—surveys of snow leopard tracks, scat, and tree scrapes—and habitat modeling. This information will be vital for informing future conservation strategies to conserve this threatened species.

Luo Xiaoyun began photographing wildlife in 2013. He has been on a mission to capture images of the incredible wildlife of the Tibetan Plateau. He has seen snow leopards about 100 times, and recorded lesser-known behaviors of this shy and elusive big cat.

Bhutan collaborated to pioneer a revolutionary pilot study on the effectiveness of eDNA sampling in assessing biodiversity. As such, the country is poised to become a global leader in using eDNA technology for conservation purposes.

A team, including WWF scientists from the US and Bhutan, is working to catch a glimpse of wildlife in Bhutan's Himalayan Mountains through the traces of DNA they leave behind in flowing river water.

Finding a snow leopard is an unusually difficult feat. With dappled gray-white fur, the extremely furtive big cats are well-camouflaged in their rocky and harsh Himalayan habitat.

Skilled scientists in India completed the first-ever rigorous examination of the country’s snow leopard population, estimating that 718 of these iconic big cats live within the country’s borders.

Bhutan’s snow leopard population increased by 39.5% since 2016, according to a new survey implemented by the Royal Government of Bhutan’s Department of Forests and Park Services with support from WWF-Bhutan and partners. Findings from over 10,000 camera trap images confirmed the presence of 134 snow leopards in the country, an impressive jump from the baseline of 96 snow leopards in 2016.

Tigers have faced unprecedented threats for many years, but conservation efforts over the past decade have shown that recovering tigers from the brink of extinction is possible when we transcend boundaries and work together.

Nepal is now the second country to double its wild tiger population. It’s an incredible achievement and testament to the conservation efforts of the government, partners, and local communities over the last 12 years.

Research from the CARE-WWF Alliance shows that empowering women can reduce environmental damage, especially when women are engaged in natural resource management and conservation leadership positions.

Recovering species is essential for effective wildlife conservation and critical to the work WWF does around the world. Here are just a few of our favorite, recent recovery stories.

From dense jungles to the Himalayas, tigers are an elusive species—hard to find and hard to count. But, thanks to the use of camera traps, the movements and behaviors of tigers are now less of a mystery.

Samundra Subba is a research officer at WWF Nepal with a focus on large carnivores—primarily tigers and snow leopards. He’s joined six satellite telemetry expeditions of snow leopards. This is his journey.

Scientists successfully collared two snow leopards in Western Nepal—a feat that will help researchers learn more about this elusive and vulnerable species. The satellite GPS collaring of these big cats brings Nepal’s tally of collared snow leopards to eight.

Snow leopards live in some of the most rugged landscapes in Asia’s high mountains, which makes it incredibly difficult to study these rare and elusive big cats. A large majority of snow leopard habitat remains under-researched, according to the first-ever systematic review of snow leopard research conducted to date.

Elusive and solitary nature, snow leopards are rarely spotted and even less frequently studied within their rugged and harsh habitat. However last November, two snow leopards were captured, fitted with satellite-GPS collars, and successfully released back into their rocky homeland in Western Nepal. The two male snow leopards were the first since the 1980s to be fitted with collars within Shey Phoksundo National Park in Western Nepal.

Established in 2010 and dubbed Tx2, it is arguably the most ambitious effort ever undertaken to recover an endangered species. Today, the overall tiger population decline has begun to reverse, with better data and improved surveys indicating there are likely now close to 4,000 tigers roaming free across the range states.Here are the Tx2’s top nine achievements to date.

WWF National Council member Diane Moxness is always up for adventure. She and her husband spent time in Nepal forging a vision for conservation that embraces local as well as global action.

In one of the most climate-vulnerable countries on Earth, an unprecedented development project is building a model for adapting to climate change on a massive scale—working one village at a time.

More than 4 million people call Nepal’s Gandaki River Basin home.

Snow leopards scale the great, steep slopes of mountains in Central Asia with ease, blending into the landscape. But these endangered cats face many threats including habitat loss, reduced prey and retaliatory killings. WWF works to reduce human-leopard conflict and protect the fragile snow leopard habitat.

Three years ago, researchers from WWF-Mongolia set up camera traps to photograph snow leopards in and around Khovd Aimag’s Jargalant Khairkhan Mountain, located in western Mongolia’s Altai Mountains, to determine the elusive cat’s population size and distribution.

Overlapping heavily with snow leopard habitat, the Third Pole encompasses the snow-covered mountains surrounding the Tibetan Plateau. The Pole’s thousands of glaciers and regular snow melt form the headwaters for 10 of Asia’s biggest rivers, which bring drinking water, power and irrigation directly to 210 million people, while these river basins indirectly support more than 1.3 billion people.

How a tiny, mountainous country became one of the world's biggest conservation successes for wildlife—and for rural communities with pressing health needs.