Snow leopard monitoring in Qinghai mountains proves value to researchers

By analyzing six years of data provided by local herdsmen through continuous monitoring, Chinese researchers have mastered the dynamics of a fixed population of snow leopards in the headwaters of the Yangtze, China's longest river.

It is rare to continuously monitor a fixed population of snow leopards for more than three years.

The snow leopard is a Class I protected species in China, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies it as "vulnerable" in its red list of threatened species.