Eastern Nepal

Snow Leopard Habitat in Eastern Nepal

There is approximately 5,800 km2 of snow leopard habitat in eastern Nepal, located in four discrete blocks that are connected via habitat in China.

Snow leopards have been observed travelling to neighboring habitats in India and China, showing the importance of transboundary management.

Potential Snow Leopard Habitat

Good Habitat

Fair Habitat

Human Influence and Protected Areas

Key threats to snow leopards

Key threats to snow leopards include direct hunting of snow leopards, depletion of wild prey as a result of hunting or competition with livestock, retaliatory killings by farmers after livestock kills by snow leopards, and land use change and infrastructure development.

Leaflet | Tiles © Esri — Source: Esri, i-cubed, USDA, USGS, AEX, GeoEye, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, UPR-EGP, and the GIS User Community
Protected areas

Approximately 86% of habitat in the landscape is under some form of protection.

The unprotected habitat adjacent to Kanchenjunga Conservation Area (circled below) serves a vital connectivity, and perhaps breeding habitat function.

Human Impact
Min degradationMax degradation

In this map, roads, population centers, and land cover are used as proxies for human impact on snow leopards. We assume that human pressure on snow leopards is higher when closer to these landscape features.

There are several pinchpoints throughout the landscape that require special management to preserve habitat and metapopulation connectivity.

The western side of the landscape is subject to higher human impacts than the east.

Summary map

This map combines different analyses to show the overall condition of the landscape.

  • Conservation importance: Habitat suitability
  • Actual and potential impacts: Treeline shift, Freezeline loss, Human footprint

Conservation importance

lowhigh

Impacts

highlow

Areas outlined in blue are of high conservation importance and are threatened by high levels of climatic or human impacts. These areas should be targeted for conservation interventions.

Water & Climate Change

Temperatures are expected to increase by 1.9-2.6 ºC degrees by mid-century, and precipitation is likely to increase significantly as well*. These changes are likely to affect the severity of the monsoon and the timing of snowmelt, with implications for humans and biodiversity both within and downstream of the landscape. Such climate changes can affect the timing of ecological events in the landscape and favor certain species over others which can lead to ecosystem changes.

* Columbia University Center for Climate Systems Research, Earth Institute. 2017. Climate Change in the Snow Leopard Landscapes of Asia's High Mountains

Alpine shift

Alpine shift is one of many ways that climate change is expected to impact snow leopards, their prey, and their habitat. Suitable snow leopard habitat is lost as the treeline moves upslope.

Alpine shift upslope

Less vulnerableMost Vulnerable

Water towers

This map shows where rain falls and flows downstream throughout the year. The monsoon patterns are very clear. There is much greater runoff (depicted in blue) between June and September. Use the sliding bar below to compare rainfall from month to month.

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  • 1
  • 5.5
  • 12
  • Jan
  • Feb
  • Mar
  • Apr
  • May
  • Jun
  • Jul
  • Aug
  • Sep
  • Oct
  • Nov
  • Dec
Monsoon

Freezeline Shift

If current trends continue, the majority of the landscape will lose at least one month of freezing temperatures. This will cause numerous impacts, including more frequent and more dramatic flooding downstream, especially as melting snow and ice combines with heavy monsoon rains.

Calendar months of freeze loss

1 month 2 month 3 month

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