Habitat for snow leopards expands

XINING - Chinese researchers said on Thursday that the habitat of rare snow leopards has been expanding in recent years, and the big cats have been sighted in more areas of China.

During a forum on snow leopard protection in Qinghai province, researchers from Qinghai and the Xinjiang Uygur and Tibet autonomous regions shared their recent findings.

The population of snow leopards in the Sanjiangyuan area, the headwaters of China's major rivers, is estimated to have exceeded 1,000, and the area has become a major habitat, according to Lyu Zhi, deputy director of Peking University's Center for Nature and Society.